Know your farmer, know your food
and a recipe for stuffed zucchini flowers with a twist
Every week I get to hang out with some of my favourite people.
The funny thing is, for the most part, I don’t know their last names. I’ve never been to their house, nor they to mine. I’ve met their kids and family members by chance, not design. You might say we’re casual acquaintances at best.
Yet these friends sustain and nourish me every week. Their backbreaking labour is in evidence every time we meet, their painstaking care on display. No matter the weather or circumstances, they are by and large an upbeat group, seeing the silver lining in every rain cloud, and the opportunity in every dry spell. Maybe those feet that are firmly planted on the ground give them another kind of grounding too.
They’re my local farmers, and they’re a special breed indeed.
Setting the seasonal table
I don’t know how many of you go to the grocery store on speed dial, but my guess is it’s a pretty high percentage. Need flour? Aisle one. Butter, eggs, milk? Head to the dairy section in the back. Green peppers, bananas, potatoes? Each item has its designated, never deviating spot in the produce section. The best grocery stores highlight and feature local produce as it becomes available, but it’s a likely bet that those peaches and plums will come from regions further afield before long.
On the other hand, go to the farmers’ market, and it’s a bit like Christmas morning every week. The vagaries of weather and whim wreak havoc on the best-laid harvesting plans, so even the farmers aren’t quite sure what will be on the table. This is Mother Nature’s just in time inventory system, invented long before Walmart decided to get into the agri-food business.
Eating my fill
This week I had Christmas in July, courtesy of Nicole Prins from Wooler Dale Farm. Wooler Dale is a wonderful organic farm in the Bay of Quinte, started by Ann and John van der Heyden, and now being managed by the second generation. While there are many farmers that have beautiful tomatoes, those from Wooler Dale are sweeter than candy. When I saw these beauties at Nicole’s stand on Saturday, I did my special summer happy dance. Tomato season is officially upon us.
Over at Footsteps Organics, I picked up some freshly harvested zucchini flowers and green beans. From Milan at Bizjak Farms, more Niagara sour cherries and the season’s first blueberries. Garden fresh flowers from Ayse at Marvellous Edibles, along with her delicious freshly baked empanadas, full of flavour: Turkish breakfast, curried chicken, poppyseed spinach and ricotta.
The joy that is the late summer season of harvest feels like a fairy godmother gone wild, gifts bestowed with abandon. If there are tomatoes, corn is coming. Blueberries buddy up to peaches, apricots and plums. Shell beans and eggplant are on their way. Is it any wonder that I’m in my happy place?
Sugarplums can wait. In this midsummer’s night’s dream, I’ll be thinking about the glorious treasures that will await me when next Saturday comes.
Baked zucchini flowers
Jacob Kenedy, Bocca
Serves four as a starter, two as a main
In bocca al lupo, literally, in the wolf’s mouth, is the Italian equivalent of “break a leg”. You’d be lucky indeed to have a chance to eat at Bocca Di Lupo, in the heart of SoHo in London, as I did this past March. This bustling regional Italian restaurant is the home of chef Jacob Kenedy, who serves truly stellar seasonal food in a convivial space.
Bocca di Lupo had been on my list ever since I got Kenedy’s cookbook, Bocca. Full of wonderful stories, beautiful photographs and food that you want to eat, the recipes convey the simplicity that is at the heart of all great Italian cooking. This stuffed zucchini flower recipe was one of the first I made from Bocca. As Kenedy says, “Zucchini flowers are most commonly fried, but few would think to bake them. Delicately stuffed and lightly roasted, they best keep their gorgeous appearance.”
Note: My farmer friend Paul, who started bringing zucchini flowers to the market last week, removes the stamen before packaging in delicate bags of eight. If you have to remove the stamens yourself, fold back the delicate flowers and snip the stamens at their root with a small pair of cosmetic scissors, cleaned and tucked in your kitchen drawer for just such a purpose.
Ingredients
12 zucchini flowers
¾ pound ricotta, preferably sheep’s milk
¼ cup freshly grated Parmigiana Reggiano
Five black olives, pitted and chopped
¼ pound small tomatoes, seeded and finely diced
Six basil leaves, chopped
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Heat the oven to 375°F.
Stir together the ricotta, Parmigiana, olives, tomato, and basil with two tablespoons of the olive oil and season very lightly with salt and pepper.
Remove the stamens from the zucchini flowers. Try not to break the petals (or break them too badly). Gently spoon some of the cheese mixture into each flower and loosely twist the petals to hold the filling in.
Arrange the flowers on a baking sheet. Drizzle with the remaining oil and bake 5 to 8 minutes until the petals are wilted, and the filling just warmed through. Serve immediately.
Lol, whenever I see things like this on my plate at a catered function, I always thought it was for “decoration” and not for eating…kind of like gooseberries on a fruit platter.