Cooking with Zucchini Flowers

Follow

My neighbors are Italian and their meals are wonderful.  Back in July I had a knock on my back door and when I opened it there was a plate of warm fratellis being offered to me.  I ate 3 of them on the spot and then the other 3 about an hour later – delicious is all that I can say.  I have never cooked with zucchini flowers and wanted to learn.  I asked my neighbor to let me know the next time she was making them so that I could watch.

I got another knock on my door yesterday and my neighbor handed me a container with the fratelli batter.  I am not sure of the exact amounts of the ingredients, but she did walk be thru what she put in the batter.

Liz, my neighbor, picks the flowers in the morning, washes and dries them and then cuts them up.  The cut up zucchini flowers are placed in a bowl and eggs and flour are added, along with some grated cheese, salt and pepper.  The batter is on the thicker side.

I heated up about 1 inch of olive oil in my cast iron pan, waited for the oil to get good and hot and then dropped the batter into the oil.  Liz told me to take a spoon and pick up the equivalent amount like I was dropping cookie dough onto a cookie sheet.  I let them cook for a couple of minutes and then turned them over and cooked on the other side.  Since this was my first time frying them, I turned them several times – I did not want to over or under cook.  I then took them out of the oil and placed on a paper towel lined plate to drain.  I did this until all the batter was used.  This time I made them last for 2 meals and let another neighbor try them.  Stella was a trouper and tried a bite, but did not like them – oh, well – more for me!

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011