After a long search and showing him lots of pictures of plants and seeds from the internet I found the mysterious gourd. It was Cucuzza squash, Lagenaria siceraria, also called snake gourds.

This week, I thought I’d try my hand at cucuzza, often called Italian squash, which are grown across the Deep South. And while they're called squash, they’re actually gourds.

A 42-inch-long squash, roughly the height of an average 6-year-old. He dubbed the strain "Cucuzza Longa" -- big squash, in Italian -- and collected the seeds from the squashes for this year's crop.

Cucuzza Casserole Makes 4-6 servings. Recipe is by Teresa B. Day. 1 cucuzza (about 2 pounds or 8 cups cubed) 1 pound Italian sausage 2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 small onion ...

Then cut the cucuzza into one-and one-half-inch diced pieces. Young cucuzza will have small seeds inside the flesh these will cook away during the simmering step.

Back in 2014 I wrote two articles here about the Italian cucuzza squash. As a quick recap, I had received a few tiny, leftover cucuzza squash seedling starts from a colleague who got them from his ...

I recently started my seeds — tomatoes, cucuzza squash, climbing zucchini, golden beets, Florida cranberries, nasturtiums, zinnias, edelweiss, various herbs and Roma beans. They barely fit on my ...

There are green and yellow zucchini plus their dradle-shaped, relatives -- petite and delicate Patty Pans. But the squash family's over-sized cugini, the cucuzza, might well be the mother of all ...

Technically, this long green Cucuzza squash is a gourd, but don’t tell the men from the Italian Gardeners’ Association, also known as the Cucuzza Squash Drill Team, who wield them like swords ...

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — For some gardening Staten Islanders, the cucuzza -- aka “gagootz” -- vines finally have given the gift of squash this summer. Despite the lack of rain and pesky lantern ...

Other seed packets ended up back East, in Southern California and even Brazil. Cucuzza seeds are available at specialty nurseries and can be ordered from seed companies.