"zucchini blossoms" news and stories

For gardeners like me, the sight of zucchini blossoms on the vine is like having the official flag of summer unfurled. It's still March, but this photo of Stef Noble's pasta with zucchini blossoms stuffed with mozzarella and escarole, is making me yearn for squash season.

Zucchini blossoms are delicious on their own, dipped in a batter of flour, club soda and salt, then deep-fried for a minute or two, until golden brown (a Gourmet recipe). And, like Stef, I love to stuff them -- with goat cheese or with a combo of prosciutto, chopped zucchini, garlic and chives.

When you have a chance to pick the blossoms from a garden, choose male blossoms (with the long, straight stamens), which serve only to pollinate the female blossoms (which bear the actual vegetables). That way you'll preserve the pleasure of eating both the flowers and full-grown squash.

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One of the things with which I have fallen in love in recent history is squash blossoms. When I first encountered these, I was slightly turned off by the idea of eating such giant flowers, even though I wasn't unfamiliar with edible flowers. It's just that the edible flowers I've eaten in the past have been small things that have been tossed in with salads.

For some reason, this picture of squash blossoms over on food blog Big City, Little Kitchen makes me want to sit out on a sunny deck with a glass of lightly chilled wine and a plate of these things, as prepared in the recipe for Fried Squash Blossoms in the post. The cool thing is that the recipe, though uses the standard stuffing of ricotta cheese, uses cornmeal as the breading.

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