A Project with Zucchini Flowers

Romina, one of my dear friends from Gubbio, Italy, posted zucchini flowers on Facebook a while back, long before we were ever going to see any here in the Berkshires! And I told her how jealous I was, not only because they were months away, but also because it is not easy to obtain zucchini flowers here in the States. (Yes, I know I could grow them, but our property is on a hill of ledge, with solid rock just below the surface, so growing is a challenge.)

Romina responded with a link to a recipe for Nidi di Rondine, swallow’s nests, filled with sausage and zucchini flowers. I bookmarked the link waiting until I might be able to acquire some fiori di zucca.

Last summer one of the farms at the Great Barrington Farmers’ Market sold zucchini flowers and for the first time I cooked with them – stuffed and fried, in a pasta, and on pizza. This year it’s so much more of a megillah to deal with the farmers’ markets and we weren’t free on Saturday morning anyway, so we called the farm, MX Morningstar in Hudson, NY, and asked if they could set some aside for us to come and buy at their farm shop.

So this really was a project – first a drive out to Hudson, then making and assembling the dish. I really wish I were a pasta granny! I certainly did not roll out the pasta dough as thin as I would have liked, and boy were my arms sore afterward.

This link gives the recipe, in Italian, but there are numerous short videos to help you along even if you don’t know Italian. I’m not sure if it’s typically Italian or not, but some of the instructions were a bit sparse, and the videos are much more helpful!

So if you have a source for zucchini flowers and want a project, here’s a great one!