Zucchini Flowers - A Treat to Ease the End of Summer

When I was growing up, every once in awhile, towards the end of the summer, my mom would get hold of a bunch of zucchini flowers, also known as zucchini blossoms, and fry them up into crispy deliciousness. They aren’t too easy to come by around here anymore but, luckily, my friend, Maria, who lives down the block from me, has an uncle who grows zucchini in his yard. A couple of years ago, Maria called to say that her uncle had such an abundance of flowers that she was going to give me some. Well, the bag she gave me was huge and so I happily fried for a couple of hours. First I ran around the corner to Caputo Fine Foods and bought some fresh ricotta and a mozzarella. I diced the mozzarella, mixed it with some ricotta, lemon zest and mint and stuffed each flower. Towards the end of my frying marathon, I was on the phone with my cousin, Lucille, and I told her of my good fortune. She said if I was tired of frying, I could use the rest to make a frittata. So that night we had a zucchini flower frittata with fried zucchini flowers on the side. You might think this was overload but then maybe you’ve never eaten a zucchini flower.

Last summer, my family and I were fortunate enough to spend a week in Rome. Our first meal, right after landing, was at a restaurant we just happened upon, Al Gran Sasso. While we were waiting for the place to open, the restaurant staff was carrying in crates of produce and I spied a beautiful box of zucchini flowers. That’s what we started our week off with, fried zucchini flowers. I also had them in the Jewish ghetto and at a local pizzeria in the Monti neighborhood where we stayed. That place made them stuffed with anchovies! I may have overdone it but this is not the the kind of thing you can have year round, plus how often do you get to be in Rome during zucchini flower season? I was getting while the getting was good.  

This may give you an idea of what a delicacy zucchini flowers are. Years ago, a former co-worker of mine was driving along a highway with some Italian relatives when they noticed some zucchini growing wild along the side of the road.  They immediately started shouting and gesticulating. They made her stop the car so they could jump out and gather up the flowers.

This morning I got the call from Maria that her uncle would like to give me a bag of this year’s crop of zucchini flowers! Maria kindly delivered them to my doorstep and, let me just say, there is no better way to start a summer day. I gently rinsed them, checked to see that there were no insects inside the blossoms, dried them on some paper towel, and prepared my stuffing and batter. Last time I made them, my mom (aka my biggest critic) said the filling overpowered the delicate taste of the flower. So this time, I made some plain, just dipped in batter, and the rest I stuffed with a single cube of mozzarella and a tiny piece of anchovy. They were, if I do say so myself, indescribably delicious; a taste of summertime heaven.

Here’s the basic recipe for Fried Zucchini Flowers:

2 dozen zucchini flowers (blossoms) with stems attached

1 1/4 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of kosher salt

12 oz. of seltzer water

canola oil for frying

• Very gently rinse the flowers, carefully checking inside each one for insects, let dry on paper towels.
• Add 2 inches of olive oil or canola oil to a deep, heavy bottom pot and heat up till nice and hot
• Prepare batter by mixing flour and salt together, then whisk in seltzer water (don’t overdo the whisking because you want the batter to be light).
• Working one at a time, dredge flower in batter, coating it entirely, and let excess drip off. Gently place the flower in the oil. Repeat until you have several flowers frying but be careful not to overcrowd the pot.
• Fry approximately 2-3 minutes on each side or until the batter puffs up and becomes golden.
• Remove flowers with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. 
• Sprinkle with salt and eat while hot!

Please note if you would like to stuff the flowers with either a ricotta mixture or with mozzarella and anchovy (or any variation you like), you stuff them before dredging them in the batter. Don’t overstuff them. After you dredge the flowers, gently turn the stem so the petals twist slightly; that will help to keep the stuffing inside. You can also gently press the petals together.