Handmade Beet Ravioli Hearts 💕

10 Comments February 13, 2023 terrie gura

I’m so glad I didn’t give up on homemade pasta. My first few attempts were equal parts disaster and comedy, as I naively believed it might be as simple as TV chefs made it seem. Don’t get me wrong, it is not difficult to make fresh pasta dough. But unless or until you are a pro with many years experience doing it, I do not recommend the method some of those chefs follow— building up a mountain of flour on a counter and then using your hands to mix in the eggs that are cracked right into the top of the pile. The likely outcome is a big mess, and I am definitely speaking from experience.

Those early failures prompted me to suspend my efforts, and I didn’t have the gumption to try again for a few years, until after I’d purchased my first stand mixer. Let me tell you, a high-sided mixing bowl and the squiggly dough hook attachment make far easier, cleaner work of homemade pasta dough. I was still rolling it out by hand with a wooden rolling pin, which is perfectly acceptable, but when I found my hand-crank pasta machine, I was on my way to making sheets of pasta for homemade linguine and fettuccine. Fast forward another year, and I picked up a three-tray set of ravioli molds, finding my way to all varieties of sweet little pillow pastas, including the handmade spinach ricotta ravioli I shared in another post.

One day, I hope to improve my technique for hand-shaping some of the special pasta, like oricchiette and casarecce. Practice makes perfect, right? There is so much to learn in the world of handmade pasta, and my most recent obsession has been adding big flavor and color to pasta dough through the addition of pureed vegetables and other natural ingredients. This book, Pasta, Pretty Please, by Linda Miller Nicholson has inspired me to try fun new combinations, including beet-infused pasta dough, which is featured in the top left of this color chart in Linda’s book.

How long will it take me to make all these pasta colors?

You can see that my pasta dough, which was made with roasted beets, has a soft pink color— not the bright magenta hue that Linda makes. I realized too late that Linda uses frozen pureed beets for her pretty pasta. I love that vibrant color she achieves, but you know what? My soft pink, heart-shaped pasta is still perfectly appropriate for Valentine’s Day, and the beets in the dough are good for cardiovascular health, so there’s that. You hardly taste the flavor of the beets, but the nutritional benefit is still in there.

The beets and egg whites are pureed and added to the flour mixture.

This pasta would be lovely as fettuccine, farfalle or linguine, but I whipped up a quick filling and turned it into ravioli. The filling is a simple, lemon zest-scented ricotta mixture, and to keep the pasta front and center, I topped the ravioli with a simple, browned butter walnut sauce and a last-minute sprinkle of our beloved parm-romano blend.

You don’t need a heart-shaped ravioli cutter. These would be just as good as simple squares!

If you have ever dreamed about making your own pasta at home, my advice is simple— start doing it! You may not get it perfect the first time, and that’s OK. This is one of the most rewarding kitchen adventures and once you get the feel for it, you’ll surprise yourself with the creative ideas that come to you. Every once in a while, you may also get a good laugh, as I did when I realized while rolling this dough that it looked weirdly familiar to me, and not necessarily in a good way. 😂

Thank goodness, it turned out delicious! If you’re interested in purchasing Linda Miller Nicholson’s book, which is filled with instruction for making every color and shape of pasta you could possibly imagine, search for it on Amazon or check at Barnes & Noble.

Handmade Beet Ravioli Hearts

Servings: About 4
Prep Time: 1 Hour, plus dough resting time
Cook Time: 4 Minutes
Difficulty: Intermediate
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Roasted beets bring a sweetheart color to my homemade pasta. If you've ever wanted to make your own pasta, I hope this inspires you!

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup fine durum (semolina) flour
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. onion powder
4 small beets, roasted and peeled
2 egg whites at room temperature

Directions

Combine flours, salt and onion powder in the bowl of a stand mixer.
Place beets and egg whites in the small insert bowl of a food processor and blend until pureed. Pour through a fine mesh strainer into a measuring cup. Add water if necessary to measure 3/4 cup.
Pour beet-egg liquid into flour ingredients. Use the dough hook attachment of the stand mixer to blend the liquid into the dry ingredients. Dough should be somewhat shaggy and not quite sticky. Transfer dough to a lightly floured countertop and knead by hand for about 5 minutes until it’s smooth and supple. Shape it into a ball and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Let it rest at least 30 minutes.
Roll pasta dough by hand or through pasta machine to thickness about 1/16-inch. If making ravioli, proceed with filling as described below. This pasta dough would also make beautiful fettuccine.

If you’re making ravioli, I’ve included ingredients below for the filling and browned butter-walnut sauce. It’s easy to make the filling ahead. The sauce should be made just before serving.

Ingredients

1 cup full-fat ricotta, strained to drain off excess moisture
Zest of one organic lemon
1/4 cup grated Parm-romano blend (or Parmesan)

Ingredients

3 Tbsp. salted butter
1/2 cup walnut pieces, toasted until fragrant
A few leaves of fresh thyme
About 2 Tbsp. Parm-Romano blend, for serving

Directions

Combine all ravioli filling ingredients in a small bowl. Refrigerate until ready to fill pasta.
Lay one sheet of pasta dough on a floured counter. At evenly spaced intervals, place a dollop of ricotta mixture. Using a thin pastry brush or your fingertip, moisten the dough around the ricotta with cold water. Place a second sheet over the sheet with ricotta filling. Gently close the pockets of filling, pushing out as much extra air as possible. Use a pasta cutter or stamp to separate raviolis. Place on a semolina-dusted sheet until ready to cook.
In a small skillet, heat butter until melted and bubbly. Add walnuts and toss to coat. Continue cooking until butter is browned and very fragrant. Add thyme leaves and remove from heat.

Bring a pot of water to boil and season with a tablespoon of kosher salt. Cook pasta gently for about 4 minutes. If making ravioli, reduce heat somewhat and turn pasta carefully to avoid breaking the pillows. Top pasta with butter-walnut sauce and sprinkle with Parm-Romano blend cheese. Serve immediately.

Roasted Butternut Squash Lasagna

13 Comments September 22, 2021 terrie gura

Today marks the beginning of something I’ve been looking forward to, and I don’t mean that my kitchen renovation is underway—we are still waiting, but we do at least have good news today. After a few false starts related to the delivery of our new cabinets, we finally got word from Matt, our contractor: “We have the cabinets!!” So that hurdle is cleared and now the real chaos (the tearing out of the existing kitchen) is slated to begin on Friday (Yay)!

The delay gave me enough time to whip up a few dishes that I would have otherwise missed, including this one, which is a flavorful shout out to the significance of this day.

What I’m referring to is Autumn Equinox, otherwise known as the first full day of fall, but affectionately known at my house as the start of soup and stew season, the unpacking of my favorite sweaters, the countdown to the first flick of the switch on the gas fireplace, and the return of the hot toddy, and I am loving all of the above.

In fact, it feels like the perfect time to introduce you to one of my favorite homemade autumn-themed dishes, this butternut squash lasagna, which I first started making almost 10 years ago. This comforting casserole is layered, not with Italian seasonings or tomatoes or mozzarella, but with flavorful, seasonal vegetables, including onions and kale, two kinds of mushrooms and oven-roasted butternut squash. Nestled between the vegetable layers you’ll find a lemon-scented ricotta, shredded fontina and a creamy, cheesy bechamel that is spiked with even more butternut squash. It is rich and satisfying, even without meat, and makes my taste buds very happy.

Layer upon layer of comforting fall flavor!

There is nothing complicated about this meal but, like any lasagna, it does take some time to pull together. My suggestion is to break it up into two days; prep the separate components ahead of time, so assembly and baking will be a snap on the second day. The other thing that is great about this dish is that you can customize it to increase the amounts of favorite ingredients and reduce any of the others that are not favorites. If you prefer more squash and less kale, just swap the amounts and change up the layering.

Ingredients

1 medium or large butternut squash, peeled and cubed* (see notes)

1 large bunch curly kale, washed and stripped of heavy stems*

12 oz. fresh mushrooms (I used a combination of cremini and shiitake)

1 medium onion, chopped

14 oz. whole milk ricotta, strained of excess liquid

2 cloves fresh garlic, minced

Zest of one lemon (organic is best)

1 large egg

4 Tbsp. butter (either salted or unsalted is fine)

4 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

2 cups whole milk

1 bulb roasted garlic

1 cup shredded gouda cheese*

A few shakes ground white pepper

Freshly grated nutmeg (about 6 passes on a microplane)

Enough lasagna noodles or sheets for three layers of it in your preferred pan*

2 cups shredded fontina cheese*

About 1/3 cup grated parm-romano blend

*Notes

Part of the squash will be cubed and roasted, and the rest will be simmered and mashed to be blended into the bechamel. I usually use the smooth neck part of the gourd for roasting, and the round part, which usually appears stringy after cleaning out the seeds, gets boiled and mashed to be added to the bechamel sauce. Keep this in mind as you prep the squash.

Nilla can smell butternut squash from miles away.

For this year’s version of my recipe, I went heavier on the kale than usual. It would be perfectly fine to use half as much, and perhaps double the mushrooms or increase the butternut squash to make up some of the volume. You could also substitute swiss chard or spinach; it all depends on your palate.

I chose Gouda and fontina cheeses for this dish because of their creamy, meltable texture and rich, nutty flavors. Some other cheeses would work well in this dish, including Havarti, Gruyere, raclette, mild white cheddar or Monterey jack. I do not recommend mozzarella, which has too much “pull.”

Normally, I use a special square lasagna baking dish, but we are in the middle of planning for this remodel, and darned if I can find it! No worries, I pulled out a glass 9 x 13 and it worked great. The noodles do not have to be boiled first; I usually just moisten them for several minutes in hot water while I get everything else into place. If the noodles are layered next to ingredients with plenty of moisture, they will cook just fine.

We are still trying to trim down the pantry, so I used the random lasagna noodles we already had!

Prep the Squash

Divide the squash so that you have uniform cubes from the neck of the squash, which you will toss in olive oil, salt and pepper, and then roast at 350°F until evenly browned, about 40 minutes. Allow it to cool on the pan before transferring to a separate bowl. Set aside until you’re ready to assemble the lasagna.

Add the remaining squash (from the bulb end) to a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until fork tender, about 30 minutes. Drain and set aside.

The solid neck of the squash is easily cubed.

Prep the Kale

Strip the heavy stems and wash the kale leaves. Working in batches, pulse handfuls of the kale about six times in a food processor, until kale is a fine texture. Sauté in olive oil until wilted and lightly browned on some of the edges. Just before cooking the last batch, sauté the chopped onion in the skillet first, then add kale. Season this final batch with salt and pepper and combine with previously cooked kale. Set aside.

This is actually easier than buying kale in bags. Just zip the leaves right off the stems.

Prep the Mushrooms

Clean and dry the mushrooms, then trim the stems and slice evenly. Brown the mushrooms, about one-third at a time, in olive oil. Season the last batch with salt, pepper and a few sprinkles of dried thyme leaves. Combine all mushrooms in a separate bowl and set aside.

I use my trusty egg slicer to make easy, uniform slices.

Prep the Ricotta Mixture

Drain the ricotta in a mesh strainer over a bowl. Stir occasionally to evenly strain the excess liquid from the cheese. Different brands will release varying amounts of liquid, but 30 minutes should do it. Discard the drained liquid. Add lemon zest, fresh garlic and black pepper to the ricotta. Stir in egg. Set aside for now if you’re working ahead.

Depending on the brand, draining will release a little moisture, or a lot.

Make the Bechamel

Remember, this is just a fancy French word that means “thickened cream sauce.” It’s easy to make! I prefer to make the bechamel just before assembling the lasagna, but if you are pressed for time, it’s fine to make it ahead and then re-heat in a pot until it is a smooth, pourable consistency. There are several steps for this component, and several flavorful add-ins, so I’ll describe it in pictures.

This is a typical bechamel, with equal parts melted butter and all-purpose flour.
When the mixture is blended and bubbly, you may add the milk.
This time, I let it cook a few minutes longer until the butter was browned and very fragrant.
Add the milk, half at a time, and whisk after each addition until mixture is blended and thickened.
For layers of flavor, there are several add-ins to this bechamel. First, nutmeg, and freshly grated is best.
A whole head of roasted garlic also gets whisked in. Mine went straight to the bottom before I could snap a photo!
About 2/3 cup of the boiled and mashed butternut squash also gets mixed in.
Finally, one cup of the shredded cheese.
There is nothing wrong with proceeding directly from this point, because the lumps in this sauce will never be seen inside the lasagna.
But I love hitting my bechamel with the immersion blender. About 60 seconds will do it.
There, much smoother and so creamy!
White pepper will give the sauce some undernotes of heat.

Heat a large sauce pot over medium heat. Add butter until melted. Whisk in flour and cook until it is bubbly, lightly browned and fragrantly nutty. Add the milk, about half at a time, whisking the first amount until smooth before adding the rest. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the sauce is thickened and bubbly. Whisk in about 2/3 cup of the mashed butternut squash and cook until heated through. Stir in shredded gouda, whisking until melted. Use an immersion blender, if you have one, to blend the bechamel sauce to a super-smooth consistency. This is not an essential step, but I love the silky texture that is achieved with the blender. Keep the sauce warm enough to be pourable and spreadable for assembling the lasagna.

Assemble and Bake

Ladle about 1/2 cup of the butternut-bechamel sauce into the bottom of a 9 x 13 glass baking dish. Then, layer the individual components as follows:

Begin with a thin layer of bechamel, then noodles, and ricotta mixture spread on top. This first layer is always a little tricky because everything is slippery, but it gets easier.
Layer half of the kale-onion mixture, then some of the shredded cheese and a few spoons of the bechamel. Time for a second layer of noodles.
Gently press down each new layer of noodles, to squish the bechamel sauce into the crevices of the other ingredients.
Ricotta goes on top, and the moisture in it will help ensure even cooking of the noodles.
I am crazy about roasted butternut squash, and it is very high in beta carotene. There’s no harm in using lots of it in this layer.
More shredded cheese, and a little more bechamel if you have enough. I reserved mine for the top layer this time.
The last of the ricotta goes on next.
The final layer has the remaining kale-onion mixture and the browned mushroom slices. And, of course, the rest of the bechamel.
Scatter on the remaining shredded cheese, then a handful or two of parm-romano blend. Cover the dish with foil and let it rest for at least 30 minutes to help the noodles soften.
Remove the foil and bake the casserole at 350° F for about 45 minutes, until the filling is bubbling around the edges and the cheese is beautifully browned.
Happy fall, y’all! 🙂

Cover casserole with plastic wrap or foil and allow it to rest for at least 30 minutes, to give the noodles time to absorb some of the moisture from the other ingredients. Preheat oven to 350°F, with rack in center position.

Remove wrap or foil and bake about 45 minutes, or until layers are bubbly throughout and cheese on top is browned in several places.

Let the lasagna rest about 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Roasted Butternut Squash LasagnaPrint it!

Ratatouille Lasagna Roll-ups

8 Comments July 22, 2021 terrie gura

The summer season brings all the garden-fresh vegetables I love, including zucchini and eggplant, which I would definitely be growing in our little garden plot if it weren’t for the deer. Year after year, I have tried in vain to grow my own veggies, and the increase of deer activity on our property and that of our neighbors has been almost humorous. Almost.

Gardening, for me, started as a fun, nature-loving adventure but has rapidly declined into a frustrating drama, and now we have this elevated box in our yard, where we cannot grow anything but marigolds and basil, which have proven to be the only things our local deer detest. Last year’s garden was demolished, right down to the flowers and budding fruit of the eggplants and even the jalapeno pepper plants (which I had been told deer would never eat). We have tried all the folk remedies on the internet—human hair, shavings of bar soap, peppermint oil, so-called deer repellent, and even a weird concoction I made from rotten eggs, cayenne and dish soap. That last remedy had near-catastrophic results, but I won’t embarrass my husband again with that story (you can read it here, if you’d like). This year, we didn’t even bother planting a garden, and I’m contemplating turning the raised bed into some kind of wildflower bed. I get exasperated just thinking about it.

To make up for a lack of homegrown veggies, we are regularly visiting our weekly Cobblestone farmers’ market, which features a variety of vendors offering fresh produce as well as pastured meat, eggs, organic mushrooms, jams and preserves, and even handmade alpaca wool products. It’s a fun way to spend an hour on a Saturday morning, and this past weekend, we came home with everything I needed for a new batch of ratatouille. Ah, my favorite veggie-centered summer meal!

Classic ratatouille ingredients = zucchini, eggplant, pepper, onions (leeks this time), tomato and herbs de Provence!

Me being me, though, I cannot simply chop up these ingredients and make a “traditional” ratatouille, which would be a rustic casserole-meets-stew kind of thing. I have to twist it up! My culinary muse inspired me this time to combine the French classic dish with another favorite comfort food—lasagna. I figured that I could infuse my herbs de Provence seasoning into a ricotta mixture with lemon zest and some grated cheese and that it would be the “glue” to hold the other ingredients together inside a rolled-up lasagna noodle. The eggplant and zucchini would be sliced and roasted, and the red pepper would be worked into the sauce. This is how my mind sees a pile of ingredients, and the end result was exactly as I had imagined, both visually and in perfect summer flavor. Delicious!

Inside, you can see and taste all the flavors of a summer ratatouille!

This reimagined one-dish meal took mostly time to put together; it was not at all difficult. I cannot say definitively how much time is needed because I was cooking all day, in between work emails and other home tasks. I will say that it was mostly passive time; I was either waiting for things to lose moisture or to finish roasting or to boil or bake. The rest was just slicing, chopping and stirring, and there’s no particular order that must be followed. You could even make everything a day ahead and just assemble and bake it the next day.

I had so many things going on at once here! But mostly, I was just waiting…

The entire ratatouille-meets-lasagna project weaved itself nicely into my busy day, and because each ingredient received its own treatment, the simplest way I can describe it is to share the process of each component. I’ll share a PDF version of the recipe at the end if you want to try it, but I’ll let the pictures tell the story in today’s post. Here we go! 🙂

The Ricotta Filling

Drain excess moisture from the ricotta by placing it in a mesh strainer over a bowl. Let it rest about 45 minutes.

The Eggplant

The Zucchini

The Red Bell Pepper

I prefer to cut up peppers before broiling, so I don’t have to deal with the seeds when it’s all slippery. Press down firmly to flatten for even blistering under the broiler.

The Onions

Slice the white and pale green parts of the leeks and swish them around in cold water. Allow time for sandy grit to settle to the bottom of the bowl.

The Tomatoes

The only classic ratatouille ingredient remaining is tomato, and though my ingredients photo displays a big, lovely heirloom tomato from the farmers’ market, I thought better of it when I began cooking my ratatouille. The heirloom tomato would have been full of seeds and too juicy for this dish, so I cast it aside and used half a can of San Marzano tomatoes instead to produce a fusion sauce, together with the roasted red pepper and a healthy dose of garlic. This sauce was similar to the roasted red pepper sauce that my husband, Les, discovered last year, but it leans more toward tomato than pepper. It was exactly what this recipe needed.

Saute minced garlic and tomatoes in extra virgin olive oil until saucy.

Putting it all together

Assembling and finishing my ratatouille lasagna roll-ups was a cinch! I par-cooked the lasagna noodles until they were soft and flexible, spread the ricotta mixture onto them, layered the eggplant, zucchini and leeks and rolled them up!

Spread about 3 tablespoons of the ricotta mixture onto the par-cooked lasagna noodles.

First ratatouille of the summer! 🙂

Ratatouille Lasagna Roll-upsPrint it!

Oh, and that plump, juicy heirloom tomato I mentioned found its way instead to a BLT, which we enjoyed as a separate meal on freshly baked sourdough bread with local greens and some pastured pork bacon (also from the farmers’ market).

Who needs a garden, anyway? 😉

Ricotta Squash Blossoms

1 Comment July 17, 2020 terrie gura

A couple of unexpected things have begun to happen since I first started this blog back in April. The first is that I’m getting more serious about using up foods from the freezer and the other is that I’m finally tackling some of the foods on my culinary “bucket list.” I keep a running list of dishes I’d like to try one day—either because I’ve seen it in a magazine or cooking show or because I’ve tasted it somewhere. And when I taste something and love it, my instinct is “I’ve got to make that!” As of now, the list includes (among other things) pierogis, handmade mozzarella, and black-and-white cookies, a childhood favorite of Les, my NYC-raised husband.

Today, I can scratch off a dish that I only added to the list as a “maybe someday” item—fried squash blossoms. I’d never dared even think about what was involved in making these lovely delicacies, but I knew how delicious they are from a wine dinner menu years ago at one of our city’s authentic Italian restaurants. So I added them to the list even though they intimidated me.

Last week, once the shock of discovering life in my raised-bed garden wore off, I got serious about trying them for real. After all, I had a hearty handful of these perfect little blossoms, and what’s the worst that could happen—I’d fail?

The thing is, it was not a failure at all. Quite the contrary. They were surprisingly simple (yes, really) and perfectly delicious. I scanned a few internet recipes for suggestions of what they should be stuffed with and to learn how to fry them without overwhelming their delicate structure, and then I got to work. When I launched Comfort du Jour, I had two goals, but I’ve put most of my effort toward only one of them—taking a classic comfort food to new levels. This project is a delicious example of my second goal—finding a way to make a complex or intimidating dish more approachable.

Before you shake your head and decide you could never make these, let me put this out there—if you can pick a flower and if you can squeeze ricotta cheese from a corner-cut zip top bag, you can make these. Yes, it’s really that simple. Grab an apron and let’s get started.

Ingredients

Handful of freshly picked squash blossoms* (see notes below)

3/4 cup whole milk ricotta cheese

Handful of fresh basil leaves*

1/4 cup grated parm-romano cheese

Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 can chilled, unflavored seltzer water (or club soda or very mild beer)

1/2 cup canola oil for frying*

*Notes

In my First Fruits post earlier this week, I pointed out what I’d learned about squash plants having “male” and “female” blossoms. For this recipe, I used only male blossoms. It’s easy to identify them because they don’t show the beginnings of any tiny squash fruit. Once the female blossoms have been pollinated (as mine were), the male flowers are basically just decoration.

Basil is one of those polarizing herbs. Some people swear it tastes like dish soap, and I’d hate for that to stop anyone from trying these special treats. Swap the basil out for thyme, parsley or oregano as you like.

Another neutral oil would be fine for frying. Be sure it is an oil with a high smoke point, such as avocado, coconut or grapeseed oil.

Instructions

The male flower has this, um, thing inside that isn’t very appetizing. I need to reach in there and pinch to remove it.
A couple of my blossoms look sad and limp, but I think they’ll be okay stuffed and flash-fried.
I strained excess moisture from the ricotta, and seasoned it only with parmesan, basil, salt and pepper. Keeping it really simple.
The petals expanded as I piped in about 1 fat tablespoon of the ricotta mixture.
I did my best to close up the petals around the ricotta mixture, and gently twisted the tops to seal it inside. Notice the bag of potato chips trying to photobomb my demonstration?
Stuffed and ready!
Most of the blossoms had stems, which made it easier to dip into the batter.
Giving the blossoms some space in the hot oil, so they don’t stick together.

Place the ricotta in a mesh strainer over a measuring cup to drain excess moisture.
Carefully reach inside the squash blossoms and remove the stamen, which is a bulbous yellow thing inside. It’s the, um—how shall I say it?—male part of the blossom. Don’t worry if the petals tear a little bit. And may I suggest that you consider doing this step outside at the garden. I made a first-timer’s mistake of doing this at the kitchen sink and scared the bejeezus out of a pollinator bee inside a blossom. Sadly, I had to smash it in the sink because Les is terribly allergic to bee stings. I felt awful about it, but I went through a lot to find this wonderful man, and it was him or the bee.
Rinse the blossoms under cold running water, and gently shake them to empty out excess water. Lay them on a couple layers of paper towel to drain.
Rinse and blot dry the fresh basil leaves, then stack and chop them into small pieces. Mix the basil leaves into the strained ricotta, along with the parm-romano cheese, salt and pepper. Spoon the ricotta mixture into a small zip top bag and seal it.
Snip a small corner off one end of the zip top bag, and gently squeeze a heaping tablespoon of the ricotta mixture inside each blossom. The blossoms will “give” a little bit as you go, and it will feel obvious that you’ve filled them enough. Stretch the blossom petals around to fully cover the filling and twist the tops very gently to seal them up. They don’t have to be perfect, but the goal is to keep the filling from spilling out during frying. Rest the filled blossoms on a paper towel while you prepare the batter and frying oil.
Place a cast-iron skillet over medium heat and add the canola oil. This is not a lot of oil, so it will heat up fairly quickly. It should be about 1/2″ deep in your skillet.
In a medium-size bowl, mix some salt and pepper into the flour, and stir in enough seltzer water to make a thin batter. It will bubble quite a bit, and that’s a good thing. It should be thinner than pancake batter, but not quite as thin as heavy cream. When I dipped the blossoms into the batter, they were coated, but I could still see them through the batter.
Very gently lay the blossoms into the hot oil and be careful not to crowd them or they will stick together. When the bottom side is lightly golden and crisp, turn them to cook the other side. Drain the fried blossoms on fresh paper towels, sprinkle immediately with sea salt and serve.

They were so pretty, and remarkably easy to make. I’m proud of myself for this elegant appetizer!

So light and crispy, and they didn’t need any kind of dipping sauce or other accoutrements. To keep our dinner easy and light that evening, I put together a simple tomato sauce (thank you, leftovers) with bucatini pasta. These three pictures describe how easy that was, and it really needs no additional explanation. Simple is good, right?

If this is how they eat in Italy, I want to move there tomorrow!

My “bucket list” experiment of making fried squash blossoms ended very, very well. It was also Les’s first experience tasting them, and though skeptical at first, he declared during dinner that he was a fan.

These were Les’s first ever squash blossoms, and he really enjoyed them.

Do you have foods on a bucket list? Tell me about it in the comments, and then go cook them. Be brave in your kitchen!

Want to print this recipe?

Ricotta Squash Blossoms Get cooking!