This is a recipe I’ve been dying to make. When I was growing up, my best friend (s/o Karissa) was part of a big Italian family and this friendship sparked my deep love for Italian food and culture. A few years ago, I was over there around lunchtime and her mom (s/o Laya) was making zucchini flower fritters and my life was forever changed. They were so incredibly delicious, I’ve been thinking about them for years. I made those zucchini fritters, but I had so many flowers left over, I decided to make Ricotta Stuffed Zucchini Flowers. These are a TREAT my friends. They are delicate, garlicky, crunchy, colourful and truly delicious. Coming by Zucchini flowers is not easy and they tend to be expensive because when you pick a zucchini flower, you’re taking away the chances for that flower to fruit. Harvested zucchini flower = no zucchini. BUT, I think as a once (or twice) a year treat, they are so worth it and you’ll think about them all year long until the season starts back up again. Here we go!!!
Ingredients
Stuffed Flowers
24 Zucchini Flowers
1 cup Ricotta Cheese
½ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
1 egg
1 clove of garlic
Salt and pepper
Cooking Oil, for frying
Batter
2 eggs
¼ cup milk
¼ cup flour
¼ grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Directions
I always make the batter first so whisk you eggs, milk, flour and parm together. Set aside.
Time to make your filling. In a bowl, combine ricotta, parm, egg, grated garlic and salt and pepper. Some people also add mozzarella to this, but I was making this as an appetizer and didn’t want it to be too heavy so I didn’t add it.
Once your ricotta filling is done, add it to a piping bag. Trust me, this is the only way.
Make sure your flowers are open and begin to pipe the filling inside. Don’t overstuff them or they’ll explode and ooze out when you fry them. Again, they’re very delicate so fill them just enough.
Once all of your flowers are filled, heat oil in a pan and get it nice and hot. Dip your filled flowers into your batter and carefully place them in the oil. These only need about 1 minute of frying time on each side, but keep an eye out anyways. You want them to have a nice golden colour and be crispy when you bite into them.
When they’re done frying, remove them from the oil and place them on a rack so the excess oil can drop off. I like to place my rack onto a sheet pan that is lined with paper towel so cleanup is easier. If you put these right onto paper towels, you risk them sticking to the paper towel and we definitely don't want that!
These are so easy and quick to make. You can probably do 24 of these in about 20 minutes total. Now sit back, relax and enjoy these perfect little garlicky delicacies.
Comments