Crispy Zucchini Flowers stuffed with Ricotta and Mint

Every time I see a recipe for deep fried zucchini flowers I’ve wanted to try my hand at it. What can I say? I just can’t resist deep fried food! Having said that, I really don’t often make deep fried food. Since I had noticed a few zucchini flowers in my garden, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try this dish while my sister and co. were visiting.

Among the many zucchini flower recipes that are out there, we decided to make Jamie Oliver’s from his cookbook Jamie at Home. It’s quite easy. We also really liked the filling and I want to try in other recipes. In his cookbook, Jamie recommends buying good quality crumbly ricotta cheese (not supermarket, best bought from specialty shop). We ended up buying the ricotta from an Italian lady’s cheese stall at the food market and I really liked her ricotta!



We found we did not need as much batter because I’m assuming my zucchini flowers were smaller than Jamie's. One note is to carefully clean the flowers if you got them from your garden. While washing them, we found a bug trying to get out of the flower (it reminded me of the scene in Alien or in Spaceball, but I digress...). While trying to cut it out, we realized it was a wasp! My sister and I screamed like school girls while her boyfriend took care of removing the wasp.


Wasps in a zucchini flower.

Crispy Zucchini Flowers stuffed with Ricotta and Mint
Adapted from Jamie at Home.

* 100 g good quality crumbly ricotta
* freshly grated parmesan
* grated zest of 1 lemon
* small bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked and finely chopped
* salt and pepper
* ½ cup white wine
* ½ cup flour
* sparkling water (mine was lime flavoured, leftover from making mojitos!)

* 8 zucchini flowers, washed and patted dry
* vegetable oil
* 1 lemon, halved

Mix the ricotta in a bowl with the parmesan, lemon zest and chopped mint.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Spoon the ricotta into the corner of a sandwich bag.

Snip ½" off the corner and use this as a piping bag.

Squeeze the filling into each flower, until just full.

Carefully press the flowers back together around the mixture to seal it in.
For the batter, put the flour and wine in a bowl and whisk until thick and smooth.

Add some sparkling water as required.

Dip a zucchini flower into the batter and gently let any excess drip off.

In a pot of hot oil, deep fry the flower until golden and crisp all over.

Remove to a plate or board and sprinkle with a good pinch of salt.

Serve with half a lemon to squeeze over.

Tada!

Stuffing the zucchini's. My sister L did a good job!

I took a lots of pics because I find they're so pretty!

I was assigned to deep frying!

Not as pretty before frying but definitely tasty!