Do you know where YOUR zucchini flowers are?
Rest assured, they are being harvested. By me. At 7 AM.
Zucchini flowers are that elusive summer treasure, like spotting a Hamptons housewife sans plastic surgery, sans oversized Chanel sunglasses, sans never used surfboard strapped on top of ironically driven Land Rover Defender, sans French Poodle being toted around in some sort of overpriced doggie bag, sans I could go on and on about this all day.
Anyways, zucchini flowers are the perfect snapshot of summer. Whether your grandma, Italian private chef, or favorite restauranteur made them, everyone I meet at markets get excited about seeing them.
It usually starts with the question, “Those are those blossom things right?” “Like those cucumber, pumpkin, sunflower, tomato, (insert any vegetable except zucchini) blossoms right?”
No they are zucchini blossoms.
“OH RIGHT! How do you prepare them, my grandmothah used to make them/I just got back from Piazza dello Lunguine in Italy and my private chef Alfonso made them/My good friend, you know Mario Batali, made them in my kitchen last week.”
Seriously though, zucchini blossoms are best served sauteed with a little olive oil, stuffed with goat cheese/ricotta and fried, or chopped raw and used as a garnish on salads. I can’t think of any better way to toast the end of the summer than with those blossom things, like those watermelon blossoms, right?
(Two Burners and a Toaster Oven)^2 