Fior di Zucca

After a week that included such memorable meals as "Raw Cauliflower dipped in Hellman's" and "3 Gins-and-Soda", I'm doing quite well this weekend. The brunch rant stuck in my craw all week, so after a luxuriously long morning in bed on Saturday, nothing would do but the greasiest breaky. I even enjoyed it at one of the sketchiest intersections of this fair city. For $6.99 I ate most of 2 scrambled-to-extinction eggs, a mountain of homefries, 2 sausages, a thick slice of ham, 2 slabs French toast (with table syrup), 2 slices of regular toast dripping with edible oil product and about 8 little cups of thin coffee with cream. So so good; my first square meal since Thursday, and at 2pm it hit the proverbial spot.

Off to market this morning then to get some fruit and veg into this body I clearly do not treat like a temple. Heirloom cherry tomatoes (at least 6 varieties in one punnet), the mother of all red leaf lettuces, her sister the enormous bunch of spinach, new potatoes, eggs, another of Amaranth's great grass-finished sirloins, raspberries and strawberries should cover it. I fried up some of last week's green garlic with quartered cherry tomatoes and a handful of spinach, poached an egg and buttered two slices of multigrain toast. I was so delighted with my endeavour that I took its photo and insisted on pouring a Pimms and lemonade into a proper champagne flute (garnished with berries) to accompany. It is Wimbledon weekend after all.


But the thrilling, danced-on-the-spot find was a punnet of 14 perfect, picked-this-morning ZUCCHINI BLOSSOMS. In Rome this spring I had fior di zucca every day and vowed to try making them myself, not knowing that just getting my hands on the flowers would be the first challenge. I nearly poached a bunch from a neighbour's front garden last weekend but couldn't quite descend into criminality at that moment. My favourite way to eat them is stuffed with fresh mozzarella and a piece of anchovy, battered and fried. But just battered and fried is good too. Oh, and as a topping on a pizza with tomato and anchovies. I'm almost paralyzed by the options!