Posted in Recipes, tagged food, Recipes, zucchini on July 20, 2008 |
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Fiori di Zucca Fritti
The reason I started growing zucchini was for the flowers. The past few summers I have seen them at the local farmer’s market, but they are easy to grow in your own yard.
Pick only the male blossoms. They are the ones on long slender stems. The females are are shorter and have a tiny baby fruit between the flower and the stem. Pick them in the morning when the flowers are open and watch out for the bees. They are best when used on the day picked, but will store for a few days in the crisper in a breathable vegetable baggie.
This is a classic Italian recipe for fried flowers, which I learned from my mom, which she learned from her mom.
Ingredients
- 2 dozen zucchini flowers
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup flour
- ½ cup milk
- Extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
Preparation
Rinse the flowers; remove the pistil from inside the center of the flower and the small green stems on the outside. Beat three eggs in a shallow bowl. Add the flour, salt and pepper to another small bowl. Put the milk in a 3rd bowl. Heat about ½ inch of olive oil in a pan on medium to medium-high heat.
Preparation
Dip the flowers one at a time in the milk, then flour, then egg and add to the heated oil. Don’t overcrowd the pan. I only fry about 8 flowers at a time. Turn when golden brown, usually only a minute or two, and fry the other side. The oil should be hot enough to make them crisp, but not so hot as to burn them. Remove and drain on paper towels. Add more oil as needed for the next batch.
Frying zucchini flowers
They can be served hot or room temperature. Usually as an appetizer, but I eat them anytime, even as a snack.
[Update October 2010: For those that prefer to make a batter and dip the flowers, I recently tried a fried flower recipe from the cookbook Recipes From An Italian Summer and the results were excellent. Recipe and pictures here.]
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A summer treat for me is fried zucchini flowers.
The infection is caused by the squash vine borer moth, a creepy red bug which lays it’s eggs on the plant and is extremely difficult to eliminate or control. My method is to pull the plant a few weeks after it wilts but before the borer’s eggs hatch and replace it with a second crop which I seed in pots around mid June, after the moth has died out.
