Italian American Girl: Making Fritelle

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Italian American Cooking--The Finished Product: Fritelle, Zucchini Blossoms

You've seen the latest video on my father's Italian garden and the zucchini blossoms in full. Now starts the season of endless nights of frying up fritelle, which no one can refuse. Literally.

Not because she's my mother but my mother can make the best fritelle this side of the Atlantic, cause my Aunt's and cousins in Italy are supreme chefs when its comes to Italian cooking.

Here's a glimpse of tonight's fritelle. Tweet

Inside The Italian Garden, Talking Zucchini Flowers & Making Fritelle.

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I was in Fritelli hell this summer!!

If you're a true Italian, then you know 'fritelli.' So, being that my mother decided to head over to Italy for the summer to visit family and because my uncle had passed, she was there to console her sister. When my mother is not home here in the states, it means one of us is going to take the fall for keeping up with my father's demands.

My father, God bless him is 78 years old and can out run me. His days are filled with tending to his massive garden and keeping the lawn prestine. In the midst of his daily jobs, he expects everyone to pitch in, whether you live in his house or not. I would come back from work late in the day and stop over where I would find in the kitchen and refrigerator a box of zucchini flowers. This was an everyday thing. Mind you these flowers are extremely hard to find in the grocers and cost a pretty penny.

So, in order not to let them go to waste, I would devote a few hours every other day to making fritelli. Now, fritellis are the most delicious thing you will ever eat. They're simple ingredients combined and fried with the flowers. Growing up my friends would flock to my house and wait for the hot fritellis to come off the stove, they are so good and absolutely addictive.

Because I work a lot, I really don't have a lot of time to grow my cooking skills. If I have to cook its minimal and just enough for me because I am also a health nut so my food is always very particular. Anyway, I couldn't keep up with the fritelli demand this summer and the more I made the more we gave away. My brothers and sister also did their fair share of cooking and reinventing what to do with the zucchini flowers but let me tell you...this little thing we call the fritella is amazing. Here is a simple recipe on how to cook them.

1. Clean a bunch of zucchini flowers (they're are always little garden bugs in them, so be sure to thoroughly clean.)

2. Add flour, salt, pepper, a handful of chopped basil and a really diced, small garlic.

3. Add just enough water to make the entire bowl of ingredients look like pancake mix. (If you make it too watery, they come out like crap so be cheap as you add water.)

4. Then, make sure you have a pan or wok ready to be fired up and the oil has to be super hot.

5. Add scoops of fritelli mix to the pan like you're making pancakes.(same idea)

6. Fry each side till they're golden and then lighly salt.

7. Eat and be merry.

Now, for those of you who need specifics on how much to put in each thing, really there is no such thing, use your eye and periodically taste the mix to make sure its salty enough. Sorry, but this is old school Calabrese style fritelli cooking.

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