Zucchini Blossoms

Fried zucchini blossoms are a favorite in my family. My mom used to grow zucchini plants just for the blossoms. (Also, if you pick all the the blossoms and baby zucchini off of your zucchini plants every day, that is a great way to have a zucchini the size of a small toddler appear overnight. Giant zucchini are gross. They starchy and flavorless and pretty unsalvageable.)

I have no idea where to suggest you buy zucchini blossoms. Apparently they sometimes show up at farmers' markets.

But zucchini blossoms are easy. Cover in egg and flour and sauté in butter. There is a theme to my cooking; sauté in butter with parmesan cheese for easy delicious food.

  

I ate this with toast for breakfast, and I had a hummingbird as a companion. If you have the possibility of having a hummingbird breakfast companion, I recommend it. I have learned this week that they chirp at each other, and perch on things. I had always assumed they were like sharks and were always moving. (I know this doesn't make sense. But it is what it is.)

Fried Zucchini Blossoms

Zucchini Blossoms

Baby zucchini

1 egg

handful of flour

grated parmesan cheese

pat of butter

Scramble the egg in one bowl and put the flour in another. Add parmesan cheese and salt to both.

Coat each thing in egg and flour. Sauté. If doing baby zucchini a well as blossoms, do the zucchini first, as it needs to cook the longest.

Fennel-Zucchini Frittata

My mom has an extensive vegetable garden. Well, extensive by my standards anyway. When I went to visit her, we went out and picked fennel and zucchini.

 

Frittatas are easy. Chop up vegetables and sauté them in a pat of butter or dash of oil until they are soft. The only trick is what kind of pan to use; cast iron is traditional, but I am intimidated by cast iron. (I have no idea how you clean it. Something about no soap and then also rubbing oil on it. You see my problem.) You need to use something that is oven safe. This one was made in a Caphalon All Clad pan, all metal, no teflon, no wood, so, oven safe.

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Depending on the vegetables, this step might not even be necessary. But you don't want to bite into raw zucchini, that would be gross. So cook them until they are edible. Then mix in with scrambled eggs. This is the step where you add cheese. We used feta that she had in her cupboard, which was also produced locally.

Put a little more oil or butter in the bottom of the pan to keep the egg mixture from sticking. Most of your butter or oil has been absorbed by the vegetables or is already in the eggs. Pour the eggy mixture back over the vegetables.

Cook on the stove for a while until it looks like most of the egg is cooked but the top is still a little runny. Put it in the oven and bake until it's golden.

Zucchini Fennel Frittata

1 large bulb of fennel

3 small zuchhini

5 eggs

4 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup (approximately) feta or other cheese

handful of pine nuts

Preheat oven to 350.

Chop up the vegetables. I sliced everything super thin. Sauté until soft with pine nuts. While the vegetables are cooking, scramble the eggs. Pour the vegetable mixture into the eggs, stirring constantly. Add cheese, continuing to stir. Melt more butter in the pan, pour egg and vegetables back in the pan. Cook until set.

Put in oven, and bake until golden.

Transfer to a plate to serve. Be very careful, the handle of this pan is going to be very hot. It was in the oven. It might fall apart, but really, who cares? It's delicious.

*Look, I figured out how to put animated gifs in posts! Sorry if they are boring. Once the novelty wears off, there will be less animations.