This July, I spent five days in the Catskills working on a puppet show with my dear friend and artistic collaborator, Rima Fand. Her house in the nestled in the forest, so it feels like you are living in tree fort. From the deck, you can see her vegetable garden glowing in a sunny clearing. She’s planted a lot of pumpkins and winter sqaushes this year, and while we were there the squash blossom display was breathtaking!

I was excited to cook with the squash blossoms. I’ve really only ever eaten them in restaurants stuffed with cheese and fried and I have to admit that it has always seemed like a strange thing to do to a flower. I consulted “Chez Panisse Vegetable” which is a wonderful cookbook that I bought for myself as soon as I graduated from college and that I still find useful after all these years. It had some other ideas. Rima and I made a ricotta filling like you would for a ravioli. We used a duck egg instead of a chicken egg, and wow a duck egg is nice here. It will totally work with an extra large chicken egg as well if duck eggs are not a thing for you. Stuffed with this flavorful filling and poached, the flowers were transformed into delicate and delightful dumpling wrappers.

We poached the first batch of squash blossom dumplings in water and served them with sage butter. Using water to poach was a missed opportunity to add flavour by way of the poaching liquid, and the sage butter had trouble sticking to slippery flower dumplings. So, the next day we poached and served them in chicken broth topped with tiny basil leaves. This was very, very delicious and we made it every day after that.

Squash blossom picking and stuffing tips

1. When you buy sqaush blossoms from the store or farmer’s market, they are usually from zucchini or summer squash. We weren’t totally sure that winter squash and pumpkin blossoms would be as tasty. The delicata and acorn squash blossoms were smaller and totally sweet and delicious. The bases of these blossoms were am especially flavorful concentration of squash umami and sugar. The pumpkin blossoms were larger. They were ok, but their stamin and blossom base were really very bitter, even after being poached in salty broth. If you have pumpkin blossoms in your garden, you should still eat them! Just remove the stamin and don’t eat the bottom of the blossom.
2. There are male and female squash blossoms. The male blossoms are on stems and the female blossoms were attached to squashes. We focused on the males as they seemed easier to cut and stuff without disturbing the squashes. Also, the long stem is useful when stuffing.
3. Squash blossoms bloom in the morning and wilt in the midday sun. It’s best to pick them in the late morning, with a long stem that you set in water like you would any cut flower. That way they will stay bright and viable in a cool spot in your kitchen until dinner time. Once they wilt, they are harder to stuff.
4. When you first pick them, take a moment to shake the bugs out while outside. I brought two bees into the house by accident! Once inside, filllthe blossomcenter with cold tap water to rinse out dirt and additional bugs.
5. I found it useful to leave the stem attached throught the whole stuffing process and trim it off once the flowers were filled and twisted. They are a helpful handle.

Ricotta and Duck Egg Filling

Adapted from “Chez Panisse Vegetable” by Alice Waters.

Note: This makes enough filling for about 32 squash blossoms. We kept our filling in the fridge for four days and made a batch of 8 dumplings each day.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound ricotta cheese
• 1 duck egg or 1 large chicken egg
• 1/2 cup grated pecorino romano
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• zest of half a lemon (optional)
• 1 Tablespoon flour (GF works fine)

Instructions

Beat the cheeses, egg, salt and lemon zest (if using) together. Taste and adjust seasoning so that it is not bland. Stir in the flour.

To finish the dish

Ingredients

• freshly cut, cleaned squash blossoms with a long stem (see tips above)
• Ricotta and duck egg filling (recipe above)
• Flavorful chicken or vegetable broth (we just used chicken broth made from half as much “Better Than Boullion” paste as the jar recommended)
• Small fresh basil leaves or larger ones cut into fine strips (fresh dill, chives or tarragon would all be nice here if you have those.)

Instructions

1. Fill a blossom with the ricotta mixture. The blossoms that I was using could take between 1 and 2 teaspoons of filling. Twist the petals at the top to close and trim the stem off. Repeat with the remaining blossoms.
2. Fill a saucepan (or wide saute pan with high sides) with 2-3 inches of chicken broth. I was making them in batches of 8 in a small sauce pan using 3 cups of broth.
3. Brng the broth to a boil and them carefully drop each stuffed sqaush blossom in. I started with the big ones first, so they would get a bit more time.
4. Set a timer for six minutes and adjust your heat down as needed to mainain a soft, not rolling, boil. If your blossoms are not totally submerged, gently roll them over after 2 or 3 mintues. Roll them in the direction that will not untwist them (but if they untwist it’s totally fine too).
5. Once six minutes has passed, remove the dumplings using a slotted spoon directly into the bowl or bowls that you will serve them in. I removed the smallest ones first so that the big ones would get a bit more time.
6. Carefully poor the broth over the squash blossom dumplings and garnish with basil or other fresh herbs. Serve hot!