Fried courgette flowers – Fiori di zucca fritti – has to be one of my favourite Italian dishes! It is so delicate and tasty beyond belief, and not many outside of Italy know of this beautiful dish, much less know that courgette flowers could be eaten. This recipe comes from the Academia Barilla.
Ingredients
- 15 fresh courgette flowers
- 15 small fresh mozarella balls
- 1 small can of anchovies in olive oil
- 200g plain flour
- 1 egg
- Frying oil
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 100ml sparkling water
Instructions:
- Mash your anchovies with a teaspoon without their oil. Divide into 15 portions.
- In each courgett flower, stuff with one mozarella balls and one portion of mashed anchovies.
- In a small bowl, form a batter with flour, egg, salt and pepêr and sparkling water.Don’t whisk it too hard so that it remains a rough and fluffy batter.
- Heat up your oil in a deep-frying pot to medium-high heat.
- Place each stuffed flower at a time into the batter then into the oil.
- Fry until golden brown then place on kitchen paper. Fry one or two each time.
- Serve immediately.
Before you go, read about my stay in San Baronto.
What to know more about edible flowers? Check out my post on Chinese lily buds.
We had a wonderful lunch (yes, another one). One of the dishes we had was Fiori di zucca fritti, which is the flowers of zucchini, lightly battered and fried, and they are the most delicate, but tasty treats. They are sometimes stuffed with ricotta or a piece of cheese. As the meal wound down and we drank our wine and sighed with satisfaction, our hosts brought out an exquisite cheese plate for each of us. Wow! Italy is such a wonderful place to visit. The people are warm, friendly, and helpful. With its beautiful scenery, its culture, its art and architecture, its reverence for its religious history, it is interesting at every turn. And then there’s the food! Buon Appetito!