(Stuffed) Zucchini Flowers

Fiori di Zucca


Sometimes it pays to be late. The vendors at the Union Square Greenmarket were packing up just as I arrived. I saw these zucchini flowers being tucked away and knew I had to act fast. I lucked out, the vendor gave me her 12 remaining flowers for $2.00 which is a great bargain. These lovely flowers are usually the highest price starters on most respectable menus.

I used The Fat Red Baron's (ahem, Batali) recipe for this. The Baron did suggest goat cheese ricotta which sounds delicious but, I opted for some fresh, local, farm house cow's milk ricotta instead.

12 zucchini flowers
1 cup ricotta
1 egg
2 scallions (thinly sliced)
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
sea salt & black pepper to taste

Mix thoroughly & get ready to stuff. Each flower took about 1 tablespoon of filling.


A second set of hands is suggested in stuffing these flowers. A pastry piping bag would have also done the trick. Be sure to inspect inside each flower for renegade insects that may be attracted to the sweet pollen.


These baby's were fried in OO on medium high heat and do need to be served immediately. A quick tomato salad was served along side, inspired by a dish had at Il Panino, created by the lovely & talented Marissa Iocco.

3 field tomatoes, rough dice
1 cucumber, half moons
1 tablespoon of capers
handful of fresh basil, cut chiffonade
juice of half a lemon
splash of unfiltered good GREEN olive oil
sea salt & black pepper to taste

Let the juices mingle at room temp in a nice bowl. After a few minutes you'll have some really intensely flavored red juice which I saved to drizzle over the hot zucchini flowers. I grilled the rosemary focaccia which was a most excellent choice to sop up the salad juice.

The stuffed zucchini flowers came out wonderfully. The flowers had nice caramelization with the cheese oozing out, making them really out of this world. We were popping these in our mouth like candy.

An excellent meal served on the balcony with some bubbly Chistalino, a Prosecco style rose wine.

蕎麦! (Ice cold summer squash & soba on a hot summers day!)

Ice ice baby...

Is the buckwheat soba noodle under appreciated because of it's bleak brown color? Maybe it's not as bright and lively as it's brother Mr. Udon or as common as it's cousin Mr. Ramen but Sir Soba does have some advantages.

I think they have a bit more flavor than other noodles with the slightly nutty undertones. They are also gluten free, if that is one of your needs. Most importantly though, buckwheat soba noodles are better for you nutritionally, with higher sources of fiber, iron and protein. I also really like the texture of them, fully cooked they are a bit chewy and sticky, it's nice trust me.

Phase I

You'll want to either start this dish in the morning or the evening before hand as these soba noodles will need to marinate in this dressing to achieve their full taste-tacular potential.

For the dressing:

1/4 cup light olive oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tbs honey

3 tbs rice wine vinegar

3 spring onions
1 tbs chopped ginger

2 tsp black pepper

I really recommend purchasing the mini Cuisinart processor if you want to get serious about making great creamy homemade dressings, it's a magical tool.

Pulse all the dressing ingredients in your processor until you have reached a smooth consistency. In a large bowl have ready 1 package of Buckwheat Soba noodles cooked, ready to be dressed with said dressing. Mix thoroughly because these noodles like to stick together. Cover and leave to marinate in your fridge as long as possible.

Phase II
About an hour before you are ready to eat.

Quick Asian-inspired pickles
1 farm fresh summer squash

I first made some quick Asian inspired pickles for this. Slice 1 cucumber into thin half moons, salt and let sit for 10 minutes. Wash off salt, in a small bowl add 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar, a dash of sesame oil, 1 tbs sugar and 2 tbs water. Mix well, add half moons to soak it up while prepping the rest of the meal.

Cut the squash into a thick julienne and let steam until just cooked.

Phase III
Assembly + Eat

toasted sesame seeds
1 sheet of seasoned seaweed laver
1 spring onion

Plate your dressed noodles with your quick pickles and summer squash. Garnish with your toasted sesame seeds, thinly sliced spring onion and matchstick sliced seaweed and enjoy.

Fresh, filling and lots of bright flavor.

Cucumber Maki

This is my first attempt at sushi, very basic cucumber maki roll (my avocado disappeared from the fridge!)

I stocked up at the Super 88 in Allston, I didn't spend more the $10 on this. All I really needed was a bamboo rolling mat which I picked up for 98 cents and some easy to use premixed sushi rice seasoning. The pre-mixed saves you the time of mixing sugar and vinegar, with this you can just add a few tablespoons in.

In a nut shell, cook your short grain or sushi rice, let it cool, mix the rice seasoning, spread it onto the nori sheet, add your cucumber and roll. I ended up with 4 rolls from 2 cups of rice.

I have yet and probably never will master cooking rice. It seems so simple but it's either dry or too wet and never compares to sushi house quality rice.

Acceptable results with this first attempt, as it made for a nice lunch at work.

Thank you Melissa for having a camera at work!

Here is our Share!Week 9

Starting at the top from left to right: napa cabbage, spring onions, carrots, mizuna, corn, potatoes, cucumbers, yellow squash.

Let me state right now that week 9 makes us feel good inside. The Salted Cod had a half work day on week 9's pickup date so we took our bike down to central square to make the pickup. Little did we know that it would be this large.

Corn, this was some great corn, very sweet with small kernels. We almost ate a weeks worth of corn in one sitting. Steamed for a 5 minutes lots of good butter, sea salt and black pepper.Made a quick lunch of sauteed squash, spring onions and rice for lunch.

We've also attempted to make kimchi with our napa cabbage. Unfortunately we had a bad recipe and it's not looking too good.

A great Sunday breakfast with our potatoes and onions.

Finally we made a nice fresh sauce with our squash, onions, mizuna and corn. We even threw a corn cob in the sauce for extra flavor! Very nice!

Here is our Share!Week 8

Starting at the top from left to right: carrots, superstar spring onions, beets, cucumbers, basil, cauliflower, broccoli, red bliss potatoes.

Week 8 is summer vacation week for The Salted Cod. This week we took a road trip out to Lancaster to pick up our share at the farm. It was a fun morning, I got to see the where all my great produce is grown and had a bit of time to hang out with Steve as well.


The star of week 8 is our veggie roast! The Salted Cod loves roasted vegetables. We had a nice selection of the great sweet onions with tops, extra creamy potatoes, carrot and lots of fresh basil.

The veggies were mixed lightly with olive oil and seasoned aggressively with black pepper and lightly with sea salt. We let it roast at 450 until the potatoes were just crispy on the outside. This roast took right around an hour.
MMM…

Here is our Share!Week 7

Starting at the top from left to right: yellow carrots, "superstar" spring onions, beets, cauliflower, cilantro, basil, cucumbers.

This summer is flying by. We were so excited for more basil that we whipped up a batch of pesto to freeze for later use. The yellow carrots were an awesome snack for the work week as well as the sauteed beets for use in salads. The cilantro was excellent in some homemade guacamole.

We've roasted our cauliflower with lemon, fresh balcony grown dill, garlic and olive oil. The oven was set to 450 and let it go for about an hour. The cauliflower came out nice and crispy. It had a deep nutty roasted flavor but the lemon and dill kept it fresh which was a nice offset.






15 minute pickles!

We have adapted this recipe from The Salted Cod's favorite cookbook How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman.

We sliced one cuke into chips, which were then put in a strainer and heavily salted. Toss them around to make sure each chip gets salted.

After 10 minutes the chips should have released most of their water content. Go ahead and wash the chips under running water, you want to remove all of the extra salt. In a small bowl big enough to hold your chips pour 1/4 cup of white vinegar over the cuke chips. Mix in 1 tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of dried dill. Eat them quickly because they actually don't last all that long. They have been a favorite treat of many of The Salted Cod's companions this summer including confirmed pickle haters. It's a nice salty/acidic balance. Good stuff.