The seasonal fiori di zucca dishes offered when we traveled to Italy a few summers ago were some of my favorite food memories!  Each restaurant prepared them slightly differently, and my husband found a little grocery in Rome which had the delicate flowers delivered in the mornings, providing an opportunity for him to attempt making the savory stuffed appetizer himself.

Our shaded yard (not to mention the often short summers in northern Minnesota) does not provide an optimal space for growing squash, pumpkin or zucchini, but when we visited my parents in South Dakota recently, the zucchini blossoms in their garden were plentiful.  My husband carefully packed a half-dozen blossoms in our cooler for the 8-hour road trip home, and treated us to memories of Rome that evening.  Fiori di zucca fritti is a perfect mid-summer small plate to share!

Do you have a favorite zucchini/squash blossom recipe to share? I would love to see it!

Recipe my husband used for the Fried Cheese-Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms pictured above, from Giada De Laurentiis and the Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/fried-cheese-stuffed-zucchini-blossoms-recipe.html.

Ciao! ~ Kat