Today we take some zucchini flowers from my garden and learn how to make easy and delicious ricotta stuffed fried squash blossoms. Served on a bed of weekday sauce, stuffed with ricotta and pecorino romano, this is one dish you must try...if you can find zucchini flowers.
Ingredients:
12 Zucchini Flowers (stamen removed)
1 ¼ Cup Ricotta
½ cup Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano (plus more for garnish)
Sea Salt
Basil for garnish
Frying oil (just enough for the flowers to be able to float. Don’t need a lot)
1 Cup, Flour
3 Tablespoons, Cornstarch
1 Teaspoon, Baking Soda
1-2 Cups, Carbonated Water
Salt
Optional
Weekday Sauce (link)
Lemon Zest
Oregano
Directions
Make the batter first. Combine the flour, cornstarch, and baking soda in a bowl and begin to work in the carbonated water until you reach a loose pancake batter consistency that still can coat a spoon. Set it in the fridge until you are ready to fry.
Next, make the filling. In a bowl, combine the ricotta and pecorino. You can add additional ingredients at this point like lemon zest, black pepper, oregano, thyme, you can get creative, but it isn’t necessary, the pecorino and the ricotta is perfect. Make sure it's well combined and then place it into a ziplock bag and turn it into a piping bag but pushing the filling into the corner of the ziplock bag and snipping off the corner.
Remove the stamen from the zucchini flowers and then proceed to fill the zucchini flowers with the filling about halfway up the flower and then use the flower tips to cinch and seal the flowers closed. They should stay sealed.
Get a pot on the stove over medium heat and add enough oil to allow the flowers to float, maybe an inch. Use a thermometer to heat it up to 350 degrees. Then right before frying, dip the flowers in the batter and twist to ensure it's completely coated and the tops stay sealed, then carefully dip in the oil dipping one side in the oil and moving it back and forth for a few seconds before dropping the whole thing in the oil, this helps prevent any sticking. The smaller the pot you fry in, the fewer flowers you will be able to fit in the pot and the more batches you’ll need to fry in. Since we don’t need to worry about the flowers getting cooked or not, all we are concerned about is how the batter is cooking. Once evenly browned and crisped, get them out of the oil and on a wire rack to cool. Repeat with the rest of the flowers.
Perfect as is but I like to serve it with weekday sauce, fresh basil, and more pecorino.
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