Today a recipe for an appetizer: stuffed and gratinated zucchini flowers.
An appetizer that can also be a second course made with the most appreciated edible flowers by everyone, zucchini flowers. This morning my neighbor gave me a few, freshly picked from the garden, so I decided to stuff them with what I had at home, and it turned out to be quite a nice recipe. This time I didn’t stuff them with meat or fish, but filled them with ricotta and zucchini and then gratinated them in the oven with a mouth-watering breading.
The leftover ones ended up in hot oil after being battered because the classics never die, and a bit of fried food every now and then is nice.
Light, tasty, and delicious, you can prepare these stuffed zucchini flowers as an appetizer during a dinner with friends before serving a great first course.
Zucchini flowers are purifying and rich in water, containing many vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants beneficial for our good health.
Now let’s see step by step how to make this recipe.
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- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 10 zucchini flowers
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer
Ingredients for 10 stuffed zucchini flowers
- 10 zucchini flowers
- 1 medium zucchini (about 1 medium)
- 1/2 cup ricotta (drained)
- 1/2 oz grated Parmesan
- 1/3 oz Pecorino (grated)
- 1 tsp chopped parsley
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 dash pepper
- 2 tbsps breadcrumbs
- 2 tbsps corn flakes (crushed)
- 1 tbsp grated Parmesan
- 2 tbsps olive oil
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch chopped parsley
Tools
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Piping bag
- 1 Baking dish
- 1 Grater
Let’s prepare the stuffed and gratinated zucchini flowers together
Wash and dry the zucchini, then grate it with a coarse grater and put it in a bowl with a pinch of salt. Let it rest for about ten minutes. Retrieve the grated zucchini, place it inside a clean towel, and squeeze it to remove all the moisture.
While the zucchini is in the bowl with salt, clean the zucchini flowers. Quickly run them under a stream of water to remove any dirt, then remove the internal pistil by simply inserting your finger into the flower and pulling it out.
In a bowl, place the drained ricotta, grated cheeses, finely chopped parsley, salt, a dash of pepper, and squeezed zucchini. Mix with a spatula and then insert the mixture into a piping bag with a long nozzle.
Take one flower at a time and fill it with the ricotta using the piping bag, trying not to overfill. Place the stuffed flowers on a plate or work surface and continue until all ingredients are used.
In a bowl, combine the ingredients needed to gratinate the zucchini flowers: breadcrumbs, crushed corn flakes (you can quickly pass them through a mixer or crush them with a rolling pin), parsley, Parmesan, a pinch of salt, and olive oil. Mix to blend the ingredients.
Place the stuffed zucchini flowers in an oven-safe baking dish, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with the prepared breading.
Bake in a preheated oven at a temperature of 356°F for 15 minutes in the upper-middle part of the oven, then switch to the grill function for 5 minutes and remove from oven. Let them cool slightly and enjoy. Meanwhile, take a picture of your zucchini flowers and post it on social media tagging me (una riccia che pasticcia Instagram and Facebook) and let me know what menu you paired with your appetizer.
Una Riccia’s advice
Zucchini flowers are very delicate and, after being bought or picked, should be placed in water with their stem just like a bouquet of flowers and consumed the same day or at most the next day.
