Fried Zucchini Flowers

Every summer the vegetable garden starts filling up with nice, big, green zucchinis.  Some are picked while still quite small and dark, while others are left until they become big and stripy, full of seeds and perfect for stuffing (but that's another blog post).

Secretly, I think the best part of the zucchini plant are the flowers.

Over several days, Nonna goes out to the garden and picks two or three flowers (not many come out at once).  When she has a big batch she fries them up in a light batter for hungry grandchildren.

We call them 'Flowers'.

Autumn is for planning

In Nonno's vegetable garden the last of the basil is tempting me.

The smell of basil is tempting me, to be exact.  Tempting me to pick it all at once and blend it up into some tasty pesto, or shred it all into a fresh tomato salad.

But apparently if you pick all of a plant at once then it doesn't grow back properly or something.  The basil is safe for now.

Here is the last of the artichokes.

No more fresh stuffed artichokes until next summer (I'm learning a lot about the garden and plants and seasons today).

And the parsley has gone to seed.

It's autumn 2013 and I'm planning the cookbook with Nonna.

When I'm not getting distracted by cherry tomatoes (only the very last ones of the summer season).

Or these random dried chillis.

Actually, the biggest distraction was the jar of biscotti left on the table.

We still got some planning done.

And then Nonna revealed the last of the zuchinni flowers, and she fried them up for me on the spot. 

But that's another post...

The First Post...

... is always the hardest.

Just like rolling your very first gluten-free pumpkin and potato gnocchi.

No matter how easy it looks, the first one is always a flop.

But as my Nonna always says (imagine Italian accent)...

"Piano, piano"

And she's not referring to the instrument.  

I understand 'piano, piano' to mean, 'slow down, take it easy, and you will get it right in the end.'

Over the next few months I will be making lists of recipes, scanning black and white photographs, typing up some family history, and of course cooking with Nonna.

I think that's a good place to end the first post.