fried flowers Archives - attheitaliantable.com

August 22, 2014 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Frying Zucchini Blossoms

All the members of the squash family – zucchini, squash, pumpkin – put out an edible flower, which in the summer in Italy is easy to find and not expensive to purchase. The zucchini flower is the hardiest and largest, making it ideal for stuffing, while squash and pumpkin blossoms tend to be more delicate and small.

The best time to pick the flowers is in the morning when they’re open. The flowers you want are the males on a long stem; keep a couple inches of the stem, it’s edible and is nice and crunchy when fried. Be sure to leave one male flower per plant to ensure continued pollination of the female flower.

The female flower will have a small zucchini attached to it.

Shake off any bugs or bees, remove the spikes at the base of the flower, and remove the stamen. The flowers will close up and slightly shrink after an hour or two and if you wait to remove the stamen you’ll end up having to rip through the flower to get inside. Be careful not to crush the flowers – I always carry a basket rather than a bag.

The flowers fried on their own are traditional and really delicious, but If you want to stuff them, do it immediately when you get home. Once the flower has closed up it will be difficult to stuff them without ripping the blossom. Just keep the stuffing simple so as not to overwhelm the delicate flavor of the flowers. Instead of stuffing the flowers, my grandmother always put a sprinkling of Parmigiano or Pecorino Romano cheese on top after they were fried!

This is a true summer treat and it’s not too late to find a farmer or a zucchini field to forage!

Fried Zucchini Flowers
Zucchini flowers can be stuffed with sage and chopped fresh pecorino for a delightful Tuscan flavour. A more southern Italian taste is mozzarella and a piece of anchovy. If you don’t wish to stuff them, just dip them in the batter and fry.
Zucchini flowers, cleaned 2-3 per person
Batter for frying (see recipe)
Peanut oil for frying
Clean the zucchini flowers by removing the spikes on the outside at the bottom of the flower and the stamen inside. It’s best done when the flowers are open in the morning, but if they are already closed when you get them, just be careful not to rip the flower too much.
For sage and pecorino, mince 2 tbsp pecorino and 3 sage leaves together in a small bowl and stuff the flowers with about a teaspoon of the mixture. For mozzarella and anchovy, simply put a small piece of anchovy on a long wedge of mozzarella and insert it in the flower.

Batter for Frying
2 cups AP flour
2-3 cups white wine
1 teas sea salt
Put flour and salt in a bowl, with a whisk begin adding the wine, whisking vigorously to break up any lumps, until the mixture is the consistency of a thin pancake batter. Allow to sit for a few minutes. Line a baking dish with paper towels.

Heat the oil on a high heat until a drop of batter fries and browns quickly. Dip each flower in the batter and drop in the hot oil. Using tongs, turn the flowers when they’re golden brown on one side. If they get too brown too quickly, reduce the heat. If they take a long time to brown, leave the pan empty while the oil comes back up to temperature (350′).

A generous sprinkling of grated Parmigiano is delicious. Serve with a dry cold white or rose’ wine!

May 22, 2014 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

April showers bring May flowers

After all the cold rain of April we are rewarded with the burgeoning flowers of May. Poppies, roses and peonies cover the Tuscan landscape. Acacia is rampant along highways, turning miles of roads into soft white shoulders. Elder flowers dot dark elder bushes throughout the countryside and I’m preoccupied with how best to get at them while they’re in their prime. Both acacia and elder are edible and I love adding them to a simple fried antipasto along with baby artichokes and the big sage leaves that come out in the spring. It’s a brief, fleeting season and so we have to hurry.

Acacia smells beautiful, reminiscent of orange blossom, with white droplets bunched together like grapes, drooping from the branches. Acacia is everywhere and generally has branches that grow within reach, giving easy access to the flowers.

The elder (sambuco in Italian) has an unusual smell with large pale yellow lace-like flowers against dark green leaves. It is more difficult to pick as the bushes tend to grow on steep slopes on the sides of roads, maddeningly just out of reach.

I first fell in love with fried elder flowers when I was little girl in Italy and my mother learned how to fry them, which is common in the area around Verona. Not understanding the concept of seasons, I would bring flowers home all year long that I hoped were the right blossoms for frying. I was so often disappointed. Elder isn’t eaten or used much in Tuscany but in the northern regions they make tinctures and syrups of both the flowers and the berries.

The batter is the simplest thing in the world and you make just however much you think you’ll need for the flowers and leaves you want to fry. Put flour in a bowl with a little salt. With a whisk start pouring white wine and stirring to incorporate. Use just enough wine that you have a batter the consistency of crepe batter. Heat peanut or grapeseed oil on a high heat, dip your flowers into the batter and put them in the oil. Turn them when they’re golden brown, not too dark, and drain them on paper towels.

In the summer we have zucchini blossoms and sage leaves, but in the spring we celebrate the short season of acacia and elder blossoms. If you can’t find any flowers to fry, try small artichokes, zucchini slices and mushrooms. Buon appetito!

May 12, 2012 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Frying Spring Flowers

There is one week in the spring, sometime in May, where I’m driven to distraction by all the acacia and elder flowers lining the roads and fields. They look and smell heavenly, but I’m just praying to find the right opportunity to pick them and fry them before the end of the brief season.

Acacia smells beautiful, reminiscent of orange blossom, with white droplets bunched together like grapes, drooping from the branches. The elder has an unusual smell with large pale yellow lace-like flowers against dark green leaves.

Acacia is everywhere and generally has branches that grow within reach, giving easy access to the flowers. The elder (sambuco in Italian) is more difficult to pick as the bushes tend to grow on steep slopes on the sides of roads, maddeningly just out of reach.

I first fell in love with fried elder flowers when I was little girl in Italy. Not understanding the concept of seasons, I would come home with flowers all year long that to me resembled the fried elder I’d loved so much, hoping these were the ones and my mother would fry them for dinner. I was so often disappointed. Elder isn’t eaten or used much in Tuscany but in the northern regions they make tinctures and syrups of both the flowers and the berries.

This was the week and here are the pictures. We fried up a big batch of them in class yesterday, along with baby artichokes and some huge sage leaves.