FIORI DI ZUCCHINI RIPIENI (FRIED ZUCCHINI BLOSSOMS)

ricotta cheese

chives, minced

parsley, finely chopped

nutmeg

salt

black pepper

Batter

3/4 cup flour

1 cup club soda, chilled

pinch of salt

Directions

To prepare the flowers, clean out dirt or insects from the inside of flowers and remove the stamen. Gently rinse them one-at-a-time and pat dry on towels, being careful not to damage the delicate petals. Cut any long stems to 1 inch.

Put vegetable oil in a heavy bottom cast iron frying pan- about 1 inch deep. Heat oil to 360-365 degrees on a candy thermometer.

In a bowl, combine a good amount of ricotta and the remainder of filling ingredients to taste. Mix well.

Fill a pastry bag (a zip-lock bag with the corner snipped-off would be fine as well) with the cheese mixture.

Slowly and gently, squeeze a small amount of the filling into each flower (don’t overfill) and twist the ends of flower closed. Place one-by-one on a plate.

In a large bowl, whisk flour, club soda and salt until combined. Add more club soda to thin if needed and form a thin crepe-like batter.

As soon as the oil is at the desired temperature, gently dip each blossom into the batter. Coat completely. Let the excess batter drain off and place into the hot oil (please be careful not to burn yourself as the hot oil could splatter).

Repeat with each blossom. Work in small batches of 3-4 blossoms at a time. No more than that in the pan, or the oil temp will drop too much and your blossoms will be soggy, not crisp.

Let each blossom fry for 30- 60 seconds and then turn with a small wire strainer. Fry on the other side until golden in color. Remove with the wire strainer, let drain and transfer to a plate lined with paper towels.

Season each while still hot with additional salt.

Continue until all blossoms have been fried. Serve immediately.