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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!

September 19, 2011 by Gina Stipo Leave a Comment

Fried Zucchini Flowers

The summer is winding down but the garden is still pumping out zucchini flowers. My neighbor had a bumper crop after returning from vacation and she gave me a bunch this morning. As the Tuscans say “Even a slipper is good fried,” so I fried them up and managed to take a picture just before we devoured them for lunch! While the flowers themselves don’t have a lot of flavor, once batter dipped and fried in hot oil, they’re delicious!

Make a simple batter with flour, sea salt and white wine. The alcohol in the wine ties up the gluten in the flour and helps to add a nice crunch. We fry so much in Italy that there are special flours for an extra crunchy exterior. The ingredients include wheat and rice flour, baking soda and corn starch and it really does make the flowers so crunchy you can’t hear table conversation!

Use peanut oil to fry, it gets hottest without smoking. I generally add a little extra virgin olive oil for flavor.

Grandma always sprinkled her fried zucchini blossoms with grated parmigiano which I think adds a nice touch.

Buon Appetito! Gina

August 2, 2011 by Gina Stipo

What do I do with all these Zucchini??!!

Well I’ll tell you, gets to be August and that zucchini patch you planted is going great guns and you’ve already eaten so many zucchinis, you hope you’ll never have to eat another one and it seems like that’s all there is on the menu. Or you go to the local farmer’s market and they’re practically giving them away and you’re wondering how you can get the family to eat yet another zucchini, you’re plum out of ideas.

You know it’s summer when that happens, and there are so many great ways to fix them but we get stuck. Below is a good list to help you get unstuck, see if any of these are recipes you haven’t tried before. The zucchini blossom is great to eat too, so add those to any of these dishes for a nice splash of orange.
The zucchini plant bears both male and female flowers. The male flower has a stem and the female flower grows a zucchini where the stem should be. You only need one male flower for every two plants to pollinate the female blossoms, so the males get fried and eaten. In Italy they will frequently leave the flower on the zucchini so you can see how fresh the vegetable is, as in the picture above. Pick the flowers first thing in the morning when they’re open so they’re easier to clean. Don’t wash them, just brush the dirt and ants off and add them to any of the following recipes!

Zucchini pancakes: grate the zucchini, mix it with chopped scallions, egg, parmigiano, basil, parsley and a little flour, drop them into patties in hot olive oil and fry till browned.

Zucchini pasta sauce: chop or slice zucchini, sauté with onion and garlic in olive oil, add fresh chopped basil and parsley and toss with the pasta of your choice. Top with parmigiano

Zucchini frittata: make the above sauce but instead of tossing it with pasta, cool it down and mix in some eggs, about 7 or 8, and parmigiano, then heat some butter and oil in a non-stick pan, put the mix in the pan and cook it till it’s browned on the bottom. Flip it by upending it on a flat pan lid, slide it back into the pan and brown the other side. Or you can put it under the broiler! (chicken)

Zucchini torta salata: follow the directions above but instead of frying it omelet style, put the mix in a pie crust and bake it like a quiche.

Zucchini risotto: same thing as for pasta sauce but follow a basic recipe for making risotto. Or cook up long grain or basmati rice, or quinoa, and toss it with the sautéed zucchini.

Zucchini ripieno, or stuffed: scoop out the inside of the zucchini, mix it with onion, ground beef or lamb, fresh bread crumbs, garlic, tomatoes or tomato sauce, oregano, basil, mint, parsley, and parmigiano and stuff the zucchini shells. Put them in a baking dish, drizzle well with olive oil and bake till nice and golden brown.

Giambotta, or ratattouille: Saute them in lots of good olive oil with onion, garlic, bell peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, basil and parsley. Serve it with Italian sausages and baguettes spread with herbed butter.

Roasted summer vegetables: mix zucchini with eggplant, onion, bell pepper and tomatoes on a large sheet pan and roast them at 400-450, dry with nothing on them, stirring once or twice. When they’re nice and cooked take them out and toss them with salt, olive oil and chopped fresh herbs like basil, parsley, mint, tarragon and chives.

Fried zucchini: make a light batter of flour, salt and white wine, whisking the wine into the flour until you get a thin pancake batter. Slice the zucchini, put it in the batter and fry in really hot peanut oil.

A word about zucchini blossoms: they’re edible! If you’re lucky enough to find them, take the stamen out, pull off the spikey things at the bottom of the flowers, dip them in a light batter and fry them in really hot peanut oil. I have a great recipe for them stuffed with goat cheese and baked in the oven. And in Greece in the summer they use them to stuff instead of grape leaves. Write if you want that recipe!

I don’t know about you all but I’m getting hungry! Hope this helps give you some ideas about what to do with all that zucchini. If anyone has any other recipes, feel free to share! Happy summer everybody!