These are one of those quintessential Italian things that you grew up on, not really knowing you were the only kid in your class eating this stuff until you meet someone who says, "Fried Zucchini Flowers?" And you feel kind of freakish (like when you brought Nutella to college and no one could understand how you could eat chocolate spread -- and now everyone loves it).The zucchini flower is just that -- the flower that will eventually become a zucchini if you let it. We like to pick them and fry them up; they're delicious and my mom always makes them every summer. It's truly about eating what's in season. The only problem is that they are super delicate, so unless you have a zucchini plant in your garden or are buddy-buddy with a local farmer, you won't find these in a grocery store. The day you pick them, you should cook them; this makes them even more a treat (and probably super expensive if you ever had to order them).
If you google "Fried Zucchini Flower" you'll get a lot of different recipes to choose from. Most of them appeared to be stuffed with herbs and ricotta (here's one example), but my mom always makes them flat like a tiny pancake - no stuffing - as you can see from the picture. Maybe that's the way she learned them from my great-grandmother? This recipe is more like what my mom makes - although, again, my mom makes them look like pancakes.
I just ate these six for breakfast!
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