Recipes

Zucchini flowers

Zucchini flowers are a typical and much-loved Ligurian food. You will find them not only in all restaurants and greengrocers, but also growing in abundance in our top garden.
In the summer 20 or more new flowers open every day, for the sake of the plant these need to be cut off. Here you see a normal daily harvest.

Harvesting

The flowers are best cut in the morning, then they are fully open. Wash them quickly under running water, they then keep well in a plastic bag in the fridge. It is better to harvest just the male flowers (growing on a thin stalk rather than on a small zucchini fruit): the females attract too many ants – the males hardly any.
Remove the stalk, the five green leaves and the pistil (growing inside the flower). The pistil can easily be taken out by cutting a slit in the side of the flower.

Use

There are many ways of cooking them: some simple, some more complicated. All taste wonderful.
Below are three. Try them yourself.

Pasta with zucchini flowers

Gently fry onion and garlic in olive oil.
Add cut-up zucchini flowers and let them melt in the oil.
Pour over pasta with some parsley (usually growing in the garden) and parmesan and serve.

Zucchini flower fritters

Every cook has their own variant. Mine, very simple, is a light pancake mixture of:

• 1 egg
• 2 dsp flour
• half milk / half cold mineral water
• salt and pepper

Some use white wine or add parmesan cheese.

Stuffed zucchini flowers

The possible stuffings are unlimited: I use basically what I find growing in the garden.
Basic stuffing:

• potato
• onion
• zucchini
• beet (Swiss chard – in the garden)
• green beans

Boil the above until soft and pass through a sieve.
Add an egg and some grated cheese, mixed herbs from the garden (parsley and basil). Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Fill the flowers. This is very easily done by slitting the flower open and pressing the edges closed once it is stuffed.
Place in a lightly oiled dish, drizzle more oil over and bake at moderate heat for 30 minutes.

Wild asparagus

This does not grow in the garden, but it is one of the gastronomic delights of spring in the olive groves.

This is our harvest of a walk to the Santuario by Monte Grazie.

The simplest of cooking is enough: wash and steam for a few minutes.
Serve with olive oil, sharpened with a little vinegar or, my preference, lemon juice.