Zucchini blos­soms stuffed with ricotta and deep-fried are a clas­sic sum­mer dish. The petals are too del­i­cate to hold on to for long, so in the short time they are around we tend to stick to the tried and true recipes. Until now.

I recently saw a post from Neil Faba, the man behind the won­der­ful Communal Table blog, about baked zuc­chini blos­soms. Neil did his sim­ply just sprin­kling with salt and pep­per before toss­ing them in the oven. I decided to try my tra­di­tional stuffed and breaded blos­soms baked in the oven.

To clean the zuc­chini blos­som, open it up as del­i­cately as you can and pinch out the lit­tle sta­men in the cen­tre, they are now ready for stuff­ing. The ricotta was mixed with lemon zest, lemon juice, lemon thyme and del­i­cate pea shoots. This was then scooped into the blos­soms. They were put into the fridge for a few hours to firm up and when it was time the oven was pre-heated to 400. Each stuffed flower was dipped in egg wash then dredged in bread­crumbs sea­soned with salt, pep­per and a touch of cayenne. The breaded bun­dles were then laid out on a parch­ment cov­ered cookie sheet. They went into the oven for 8 min­utes, were pulled out and flipped before going back in the oven for another 5–7 min­utes to brown both sides.

They came out beau­ti­fully crunchy on the out­side and melt­ingly soft in the cen­tre with no greasy residue on the palate or the fin­gers. Served over a salad of farm fresh baby let­tuces with radish and more of those won­der­ful pea shoots, they were a big hit with my din­ner guests. After the dessert was served there was no huge pan of oil to clean up, no scent of deep-frying in the air. Just one crumb-y sheet of parch­ment to ball up and toss.

Thanks Neil, you’ve inspired and health­ier and eas­ier alter­na­tive to an old standby with­out sac­ri­fic­ing any flavour!