Fried Zucchini Flowers with Goat Cheese

This is from my current favorite, Molto Italiano by Mario Batali. I've been watching a lot of Lydia Bastianich on the Create channel, and I recently learned that her son is Mario Batali's business partner, and an amazing fountain of knowledge when it comes to Italian wine. I think finding this out raised Mario's credit in my book - like he's no longer just a Food Network lackie. So, after pawing through about 10 of his cookbooks at B&N last month, I settled on this one and have not been disappointed with anything so far.

We planted WAY too much zucchini this year, and sadly some of it is going straight from the vine into the compost bin. None of our friends or family, and no one at either of our offices will take any more zucchini, so this recipe was particularly appealing to me!

I was a little nervous about what would happen if we didn't completely remove the stamens from the inside of the flower, but it was actually really easy to do. I mixed the goat cheese in this recipe with some homemade ricotta (I'll post soon) and it was awesome. The tomato "sauce" that goes with it easily deserves it's own post. We've used leftovers of it to dunk crusty bread and it's great. It only gets better after a few days in the fridge. This could easily be a light dinner with a side salad for me.

Fried Zucchini Flowers with Goat Cheese
12 Zucchini Flowers - stamens (and any bugs!) removed
1 cup fresh goat cheese
1 large egg
2 scallions thinly sliced
1/4 tsp. fresh grated nutmeg
1 pound yellow or red grape tomatoes
1/2 cup olive oil for frying (I used a nonstick pan and hardly any oil and they still came out with a great crust)
3 tbl. red wine vinegar
8 fresh basil leaves

In a food processor, combine the tomatoes, vinegar, basil and a little bit of the olive oil. Puree until smooth, strain through a cieve and set aside. In a small bowl combine goat cheese, egg, nutmeg and scallions. To stuff the zucchini flowers I found it easiest to put the filling in a ziplock bag and snip off a small piece of the corner instead of using a spoon to try and fill the delicate flowers. Divide the mixture evenly between the flowers. If frying, heat the oil until smoking and add four flowers at a time, keeping them warm in a low oven if you need to cook them in batches. If pan frying instead, add 6 flowers at a time to a nonstick pan over medium high heat and cook 3-4 minutes on each side, flipping three times to create a brown crust all over. Drain on paper towel. Drizzle the tomatoe sauce over the warm flowers and serve.

Tuna Carpaccio

For those of you who are squeamish about raw fish, you should probably skip this post. Recently my husband found this recipe while killing time on epicurious.com (which takes up far too much of our time), and recreated it with his own take. The result was an amazingly simple carpaccio with just the right balance of salty and tangy.

alic;">Tuna Carpaccio
(adapted from epicurious.com)

4 oz. fresh sushi-grade tuna small bunch watercress
2 oz. fresh parmesean cheese for grating
1 small bunch chives (or scallions)
4 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar (use the good stuff...a little goes a long way)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil


Cut the tuna into about 1-inch squares. Place each square between two pieces of parchment paper or plastic wrap, and flatten with a meat mallet or small fying pan until very thin. Arrange the pieces on a plate, slightly overlapping. Drizzle with half of the oil and vinegar and sprinkle evenly with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper.

In a small bowl, combine watercress (arugula would work well too) with remaining oil and vinegar. Toss to combine. Place the watercress salad on top of the tuna in the middle of the plate. Top with shaved parmesean cheese and finish with the diced chives.

Serve alone or with little toasts, crackers - just about anything!

Treviso Marmalade and Goat Cheese Crostini

This was another recipe from Wine Bar Food, which we've been cooking from every weekend since we got it, and it is so good, not to mention affordable...radiccio and a small package of (naturally lower fat) goat cheese. I used homemade green olive and basil bread that we had in the freezer, but the recipe calls for a plain french bread. Treviso is a variety of radiccio that is used all over Northern Italy, and is abundant at the Rialto Markets in Venice (where we fell in love with it). It's been impossible to find here, but that could be because we live in the sticks of NH. At any rate, the regular round heads of radiccio that are available in our grocery store taste similar enough with a bitter bite and gorgeous purple color.

When we were making this, the smell of the balsamic vinegar for the first few minutes after adding it to the wilted radiccio was almost enough to make me sick, and definitely had me nervous about this snack, but it mellowed out and the final product was delicously sweet with just enough bitterness left.


Treviso Marmalade & Goat Cheese Crostini
Adapted from Wine Bar Food

2 heads of treviso (or round radiccio)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
16 slices of bagette
6 ounzes goat cheese (softened to room temperature)
Fresh basil (optional)

If using the round radiccio, cut each head in quarters and remove the tough stem. Coarsly chop the leaves. Heat olive oil in medium pan over medium heat. Add the radiccio and cook until wilted, stirring frequently (about 5-6 minutes). Stir in the vinegar and sugar, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until all of the vinegar is evaporated and the mixture has reduced to a jammy consistency, cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile slice the bagette and broil 1-2 minutes on each side until brown. Divide the goat cheese evenly between the slices and spread to cover the toast. Top each crostini with a equal amount of the marmalade and serve, topped with fresh basil if you have it.