When I talked about Savoring your Scraps, I referred to it as the vegetable version of nose to tail cooking. This is another excellent example. Zucchini blossoms tend to be overlooked and discarded. However, fresh blossoms are delicious and should be savored. You can simply toss them into a salad, include them with sauteed zucchini into a pasta, and even put them on pizza! We had them last night for dinner tempura style, stuffed with a ricotta cheese mixture and served alongside a simple salad.

The breading in this recipe is light and crunchy, which nicely counters the creamy and rich filling. We served them sans sauce, but you could definitely have marinara or another dipping sauce with them.

Also, feel free to play with this recipe. You could sub some cream cheese, use Parmesan in place of Romano, or swap the parsley for another herb. Surprisingly, this recipe comes together quite quickly and can easily work for a weeknight dinner. To make ahead, you could stuff the blossoms a few hours in advance. But, once you start messing with the blossoms, they will not last long.

Ricotta Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms

Ingredients:

• 3-4 cups canola or vegetable oil
• 4 oz fresh zucchini blossoms, unwashed
• 7 oz ricotta
• 2 oz goat cheese
• 1 oz grated Romano chees
• 1 Tbsp chopped parsely
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 1 c flour
• 1 c soda water or unflavored sparkling water

Directions:

1. Start heating the canola oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat to about 350 degrees. It is ready when a small piece of bread sizzles and browns in the oil.
2. Mix the ricotta, goat cheese, Romano, parsley, and olive oil in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon into a plastic bag or piping bag. If using a plastic bag, cut a small piece off the bottom corner to squeeze the cheese mixture into the blossoms.
3. Carefully open each blossom just a little bit and check for any bugs using the blossom as a hotel. If there are any, you should be able to simply shake them out.
4. Pipe a little bit of cheese into each blossom. Leave enough room to twist the top of the blossom closed to hold the cheese mixture in when frying.
5. Whisk together flour and soda water.
6. Once oil is ready, dip one blossom into batter to completely coat. Gently shake off any excess batter. Lower blossom into oil and let it fry until just starting to turn golden. Remove from heat, sprinkle with salt, let cool slightly, and taste. This will let you know whether you need to heat the oil a little further or cool it down slightly before frying the remaining blossoms.