I love this dish. As a family, we always pick the courgette flowers from the garden, dust them down and start cooking them until crispy. The kids grate the Parmigiano and they’re gone in moments — then we head back out to pick some more for another round. This is a very quick dish to cook and serve, so ensure you have all your ingredients ready to go.
Ingredients
| 500 ml | Rice bran oil |
| 6 | Courgette flowers (Main) |
| ½ cup | Potato starch |
| 1 handful | Parmigiano cheese, grated (Main) |
| 200 g | Ricotta cheese (Main) |
| 2 | Red chillies, sliced thinly |
| 2 | Lemons, zested |
| 1 dash | Extra virgin olive oil |
| 1 pinch | Cracked black pepper |
| 1 small handful | Mint, sprigs, to serve |
| 1 small handful | Coriander sprigs, to serve |
| 1 small handful | Vietnamese mint leaves, to serve |
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Directions
- Place a medium pot on the stove and add the oil, bring up to heat — just under smoking point.
- Halve the courgette flowers and remove the stamen from each flower.
- Carefully open out flat, ready to dust and shallow fry. Lightly dust the flowers with the potato starch.
- Place dusted flowers into the pot and cook until crispy — this will take about 1 ½ minutes, it's quick!
- Have a fine grater ready for the parmigiano, this is going to give the dish an umami boost of flavour.
- Spoon about 5 dollops of ricotta around a large serving plate. Add the crispy courgette flowers, sprinkle the chilli and lemon zest across the top, grate the parmigiano a little wildly all over. Add a healthy drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a few good cracks of fresh black pepper.
- Finish with the fresh sprigs of herbs and build it very organically — as if looking into a wild garden. Serve immediately.
This recipe was created by Nic Watt as a starter in a three-course spring meal, followed by a main of
and
for dessert.
