Courgette flowers stuffed with minced meat and macaroons

I never particularly liked summer because when I lived in Italy I always found it too hot - Southern Italy at 40°C is no fun AT ALL for me - but this year I kind of "woke up" and discovered that I actually DO love summer. OK, this season in Holland is very different from the Italian one and yet, it's been pretty hot in Amsterdam lately and despite the fact that I was working hard - first renovating my professional kitchen and then cooking for several caterings - I don't actually care that much for the hot weather. On the contrary, I'm actually quite enjoying it.
I guess it has to do with age, with getting a bit older every year and getting closer and closer to the "real me", as I call it. As the Beatles would say, it's getting better all the time.
Or maybe it's just that, after all, here it's not as hot as there. ;)
One of the things for which I've ALWAYS appreciated summer, though, is its produce: the fruits and vegetables that you normally could not get in any other season (I say "could not" because of course nowadays you can get just anything in any seasons, from peaches in the winter to pumpkin in spring) and that make this period of the year so special.
Take zucchini flowers, for example. OK, here in Amsterdam I can get them whenever I want, I only need to order them and they come straight from the importer who gets them in Israel, but I still stick to seasonal eating as much as I can. Hey, I'm not a member of Slow Food for nothing. :)
So courgette flowers for me are a typical summer product, and I wouldn't even think of eating them in any other season but this one.
This is a recipe from the Piemonte region, courgette flowers stuffed with a lovely, slightly sweet filling made with minced meat - it can be veal or beef - and amaretti, the great bittersweet Italian macaroons that according to one of my cooking bibles, Marco Guarnaschelli Gotti's "Grande enciclopedia illustrata della gastronomia", were very probably made for the first time in Venice during the Renaissance. I do associate these cookies a lot with Veneto, the region of which Venice  is the capoluogo and where my grandparents from mother's side come from, maybe because my grandma used to make lovely peaches filled with amaretti and almonds quite often. Nowadays, though, amaretti are made in many Italian regions, from Piemonte to Liguria and Abruzzo.
Anyway, this is a typical Piemontese dish made with zucchini flowers during summer and with blanched Savoy cabbage leaves in the winter. Great in both versions. The regional name is capunet, and there are several recipes that differ slightly from one another according to the part of Piemonte they come from. I really like this one for the unusual combination of macaroons and meat.
The ones you see on the picture - each with their very own little courgette attached to them - have been made by the students of my 4-week cooking course that started last week. All guys, ain't that great? :) The times that I used to have practically all women following my courses and workshops are definitely over: more and more men love to be in the kitchen and want to improve their cooking skills and I regularly have groups with more men than women.
Let me add that the flowers were absolutely delicious and cooked to perfection. I already had a clear penchant for Dutch and Spanish men (in the group there's a Spaniard too) and now even more! ;)

Capunet

Serves 4-6

8-12 courgette flowers
500 gr. lean minced beef of veal
2 garlic cloves
1 glass of milk
4 slices of white bread
1 egg
40 gr. of amaretti (Italian macaroons)
6 tablespoon of grated Parmigiano
1 tablespoon of finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
salt and pepper
olive oil

Carefully wash the zucchini flowers under tap water and remove their thick pistils.

Soak the bread in milk and finely chop the garlic cloves.

Mix the minced beef with the egg, the bread (well squeezed and mashed with your hands), the chopped garlic, the crumbled amaretti, the parsley and the Parmigiano.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Fill each flower carefully with a meatball and close the petals around the filling.

Pour some olive oil in a frying pan and carefully lay all the flowers in it.

Allow to cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes, first without lid and after a while with a lid, on a low heat.

Turn all the flowers at least once.

Add a pinch of salt and ground black pepper.

Serve hot.

Comments

[Florist Italy]

Looking nice dish I will must try it!