71 replies to this topic

[Craig Camp]

Zucchini flowers stuffed with foie gras

I have a bunch in my garden now (I know we planted late). What are your favorite preparations.

[giuliochef]

There are several ways to stuff them, but I love to eat fiori (flowers) di zucchina as a starter (the classic roman style): stuffed with anchovies and ricotta cheese or mozzarella cheese (if you want you can add a caper or an olive for each flower), then plunge in pastella (batter? sorry my english), finally deep fried and served with fried baccalà (dry salted cod reconstitute for one night in water) and fried mixed vegetable (zucchine, eggplants, mushrooms, artichokes and apples - this is "fritto alla romana").
Or stuffed with Dublin Bay prawn and sole mousse served on chopped tomatoes salad.
You can also prepare them as they do in Liguria: stuffed with boiled potatoes, ricotta made from sheep's milk, chopped chive or majoran, egg white and baked for 5-6 minute at 200° Celsius.
In Trentino (the region near the Austrian border) they stuff zucchini flowers with speck (smoked ham: http://www.speck.it/index_f.html -also in English-) and chopped green onions.
In Piemonte they fry fiori di zucchina stuffed with sweet fontina cheese and ham.
In Puglia they stuff with dried tomatoes, capers, black olives, burrata (spreadable buffalo mozzarella) or buffalo mozzarella, plunge in batter (made with plain flour, eggs, brewer's yeast, sparkling water) and deep fried.
Another delicious way is risotto or fresh tagliatelle with tiger prawns and zucchini flowers.

[bloviatrix]

I just made them for the first time last week. I did a beer batter and deep-fried them. Then sprinkled them with some sea salt. Very simple. Delicious. Nice and crunchy. We loved them.

[guajolote]

What makes these Italian? Shouldn't this be in cooking?

I like them stuffed with Queso Oaxaqueno, battered and deep fried, with a squeeze of lime and some hot sauce.

[vengroff]

I like them stuffed with riccotta seasoned with nutmeg, frito misto battered, then deep fried to a crunchy golden brown. Like all deep-fried foods, they are best eaten within just a minute or two of being cooked.

[Craig Camp]

What makes these Italian? Shouldn't this be in cooking?

I like them stuffed with Queso Oaxaqueno, battered and deep fried, with a squeeze of lime and some hot sauce.

This is a most Italian dish. You can buy them in almost every grocery store in season. Every region has its own recipe - none of which looks like yours by the way

I guess I should have been more specific in that I was looking for more regiona Italian preparations.

I will try out your recipe and freak out my Italian friends. Lord knows where I find the hot sauce.

[Adam Balic]

I think that I like most preparations of zucchini flowers (although stuffing the female flowers is strictly for tourists ). Recently I had a ligurinan torte that was made up of zucchini flowers, which was very good . Prehaps Pongi would be able to give us a recipe?

Edited by Adam Balic, 11 August 2003 - 01:13 AM.

[Craig Camp]

My favorite for very fresh flowers:

for 2 people

10 flowers - gently washed and bugs removed.
2 - very fresh eggs. (go out of your way to get really flavorful eggs - when I make this I take the time to go to the farm up the road and buy fresh eggs)
salt
unsalted butter

Whisk the eggs until well mixed as if you were making an omelet. Add salt.
Place flowers in the egg mixture and gently toss covering well with egg.
Heat butter over medium high heat
When hot pick out the flowers one by one and place in pan turning several times.
After about one minute add remaining egg mixture and toss until just barely cooked.
Serve immediately with a nicely chilled Prosecco.

©2003 Vino e Cibo

[Adam Balic]

Five flowers per person? Miser.

Edited by Adam Balic, 11 August 2003 - 01:14 AM.

[Craig Camp]

Five flowers per person? Miser.

... but only in a multi course meal!

[Nikolaus]

Let me suggest the following as a starter:

Take very fresh and firm whole Zucchini flowers, clean them and stuff them with a possibly big and fleshy (major fin de claires or blue point, belons turned out to be less suitable), fresh raw oyster, without damaging the flower. It has to remain firm and elastic, so that it closes up on the stuffing.

Then drop the stuffed flowers into very hot olive oil for a very short time (1 minute or so proves to be enough), and take them out when it is still firm.

Dry it very shortly and without squeezing, on linen or oven paper. As a result, the flowers should remain firm and crunchy, hot outside and with the Oyster still cold and living inside. It is a delighting contrast.

To take away the last exceeding fat of the oil, I serve them on a thin bed of boiled, finely smashed potatoes, shortly roasted with an anchovy and seasoned with Muscat and white pepper.

I use to serve like two flowers per person and garnish the plate with fresh onion herbs.

[Elissa]

i like mine more simple: saute onion or shallots, garlic, then add capers, goat cheese, parsley and chervil or tarragon, stuff, drizzle with evoo and bake for just a couple few. why in the world deep fry something so delicate?

[redwinegulper]

I am soooo hungry.

I was so disappointed last week when I was in Italy and I ordered a plate, they we stuffed with ricotta, and then deep fried and the batter was too thick.

[Adam Balic]

why in the world deep fry something so delicate?

So that they keep their shape rather then going mushy and shapeless.

[Craig Camp]

why in the world deep fry something so delicate?

So that they keep their shape rather then going mushy and shapeless.

Its one of those things you have to do just right or you end up with a greasy mess. I have had wonderful deep fried flowers, but they battered very lightly. Look how crisp and light deep fried calamari can be in Italy compared that oily mess they give you in the USA.

[Adam Balic]

The flowers I cook in Chianti are much better then the UK versions as in Italy I get to use new season olive oil and in the UK peanut oil.

[peterpumkino]

in Italy I get to use new season olive oil and in the UK peanut oil.

Adam, are you telling me yu can't get olive oil in the uk? I'll sell you some, very cheap.....

[Pongi]

For some reason I never understood, we call the Zucchini flowers "Fiori di Zucca" and not "Fiori di Zucchini", so this is a recipe for

TORTA DI FIORI DI ZUCCA

Ingredients:

For the dough:
-200 gr flour
-3 tbsp EVOO
-1 egg yolk
-Salt
-2-3 tbsp warm water

Make the dough and keep aside for 30 mins.

For the filling:
-250 gr ricotta
-1 egg
-about 100 gr zucchini flowers
-1 small onion (or a scallion)
-1/2 handful fresh chopped parsley
-1 pinch fresh marjoram
-EVOO
-S&P

Mix the ricotta, egg, herbs; season with S&P.
Mince the onion and fry it very gently in EVOO until soft.
Clean the zucchini flowers, wash and wipe them carefully.
Coarsely cut them in stripes and fry them together with the onion for 1 minute. Cool them down.
With the 2/3 of the dough, line the bottom of a round baking dish (greased with some EVOO), pour the ricotta filling and then arrange the zucchini/onion mixture over the filling. Cover with the remaining dough, sealing carefully the edge. Bake at 350° until golden on top.

Variations: you can make the filling with half zucchini flowers and half zucchini, cut in slices. If you like a tastier filling, add a handful of grated parmesan to the ricotta.

Pongi

[Adam Balic]

in Italy I get to use new season olive oil and in the UK peanut oil.

Adam, are you telling me yu can't get olive oil in the uk? I'll sell you some, very cheap.....

Peter thank you for your kind offer . As you can see in my post I mentioned 'New Season Olive Oil'. My relatives in Italy work on an estate that produces very good quality olive oil. The oil they use for cooking, sells for 12 quid for 500 ml in the UK. A little to expensive

The quality of the olive oil I can afford in the UK for deep frying is to low to use for deep frying, so I use peanut oil as it's flavour is neutral, not actively nasty like cheap olive oil.

[Elissa]

no offense intended, but isn't chevre more tasty than ricotta?

[Craig Camp]

no offense intended, but isn't chevre more tasty than ricotta?

Not the stuff I'm buying from Puglia at my local store.

It has a wonderful almost meringue type flavor. Delicate and sublime.

The same cheese is even better when you eat it in Puglia (or Sicily and the other extreme southern regions) instead of all the way up here in Lombardia.

[Jim Dixon]

If I'm lazy I'll make a fritatta with the flowers. I usually don't stuff them. but dip in beaten egg, roll in bread crumbs, and pan-fry in olive oil.

Jim

[tanabutler]

Coarsely cut them in stripes

I'm not getting the picture. Lengthwise? Horizontally? Chiffonade?

Thanks—it looks yummy.

[Pongi]

Oops...please forgive my poor English
Cut them horizontally to a chiffonade, but not too thin or they'll end up in nothing when cooked.

Speaking of ricotta, I agree that the tastiest ricotte come from Southern Italy, but have you ever tasted Seiras? I'm speaking mostly to those of you who are familiar with Piemonte as it's a typical Piemontese ricotta made with goat milk. It's really tasty, and delicious.

Pongi

[Bill Klapp]

A few reflections: First, pongi made me drool with the mention of seirass, which also is delicately herbed sometimes. Chevre might work, as was noted above, but the desired result is to let the flavor of the flower shine through, and not all goat cheeses will allow that. A mild seirass gives you a little more kick than ricotta, but yet does not fight the flavor of the blossom. Secondly, in answer to the question "Why fry them?", it is because most Italian kitchens have a gift for breading and frying in a pure, greaseless manner that is virtually unknown in the U.S. A deft Italian hand can produce a fried product that it perfectly crisp but without added flavor from the cooking fat (except, of course, for the delicate and welcome flavor imparted by excellent olive oil). Pongi also notes that the flowers have sufficient taste and aroma to flavor baked egg or cheese dishes (such as sformati, the Piemontese savory flans that figure prominently in antipasti). Lastly, my favorite stuffing is seafood: scampi, shrimp or lobster, used sparingly.

[guajolote]

What makes these Italian? Shouldn't this be in cooking?

I like them stuffed with Queso Oaxaqueno, battered and deep fried, with a squeeze of lime and some hot sauce.

This is a most Italian dish.

But zuchinni are originally from Mexico. I bet the Aztecs, Mayans, etc. were eating zuchinni flowers before Columbus was even born .

I didn't even know that they eat stuffed blossoms in Italy, I've only had them in Mexico. They're also very good in a light soup made with chicken broth. I had some at Spring in Chicago last week that were stuffed with lobster and braised, yum,

[Craig Camp]

But zucchini are originally from Mexico. I bet the Aztecs, Mayans, etc. were eating zuchinni flowers before Columbus was even born .

Like Tomatoes it does not matter where there originally came from - what matters is what they did with it when they got it.

The Italians win the prize for both tomatoes and zucchini flowers. Nobody does it better.

[Priscilla]

I was thinking the same thing Guajolote aren't squash a New World veg? Also I first encountered them in Mexican/Southwestern American cookery.

Not to take away anything from Italian preparations, certainly.

[Craig Camp]

I was thinking the same thing Guajolote aren't squash a New World veg?

... yeah. A couple of centuries ago.

You will find no place on the planet with more diverse ways of cooking these flowers than in Italy.

[Adam Balic]

I was thinking the same thing Guajolote aren't squash a New World veg?  Also I first encountered them in Mexican/Southwestern American cookery.

Not to take away anything from Italian preparations, certainly.

Priscilla - I think (may have to look this up) that the new world summer and winter squash + Zucchini replaced old world gourds, so they may have cooked similar dishes pre-New World contact. Rather like how the New World beans added to/replaced the pre-existing bean cookery of the old world (Fava beans, black eyed beans/peas and chickpeas).

Whatever the case I thank God for zucchini flowers and wish that my window box had more then two zucchini plants in it!