Everyone loves the fritters. We sell a ton of them every night of the week. People can’t seem to get enough of them, they’re like candy. It must be the combination of flavors, aromas and textures that keep diners coming back for more. Now that summer is in full swing they should be easier to come by. We do manage to get them year round though. Well, there was a stretch of about 3 months this year that we couldn’t get them at all. People were not happy. Rest assured they’re back now.
I always get asked how I came up with the idea of stuffing a squash blossom with taleggio cheese, frying it and then covering it with honey and truffle oil. Chefs get asked these types of questions all the time. I get inspiration for dishes from lots of different places. Sometimes it’s something I ate while traveling in Italy or New York City. Other times a picture of a particular plate of food will spark some creative juices. And sometimes it’s just a variation on something I’ve done before, whether at L’Amante or a place I worked at previously. One thing I can tell you is that I wasn’t the first to come up with a dish. Everything is based on something else. There is very little originality out there. I’m not saying this is bad and that all chefs are copying from each other. All I’m saying is that it’s probably been done before in some way.
So let’s take the Squash Blossoms. Did I come up with this dish out of thin air? No. I worked at a place in Boston that had a Taleggio Bruschetta on the menu. It also had some honey and truffle oil as part of the dish. I always remembered that dish. Not because I liked it (and I did) but because of the way it smelt. The combination of the earthy taleggio cheese with sweet honey and pungent truffle oil is a winner. It also tasted really good but it was too much. A big slab of bread with a couple of ounces of cheese was a bit overkill. When I found myself with some squash blossoms I decided to try to recreate that bruschetta dish inside the blossom. I stuffed the blossoms, dredged them in a light batter, deep fried them and then drizzled a little local honey and truffle oil on them. The combination of the crispy, salty, fried batter, the earthy, melting taleggio inside the delicate blossom and the sweetness of the honey with the pungency of the truffle oil turned out to be a great combination. And there are thousands of satisfied diners who would agree. If you haven’t tried them yet get down here while we have them. Before you know it the cold weather will be here and the squash blossoms will be harder to come by.
