Fiori di Zucca 2

Today I fried up five fiori di zucca (recipe here, only we had anchovies instead of capers), some cucumber and the leftover anchovies. At the last moment, I remembered to take a photograph. (The object on the right is a stuffed zucchini blossom.)

It really was the taste of Rome. I didn't even like anchovies until we discovered fiori di zucca in Rome.

The plan, going forward, is to eat the blossoms the day they first bloom. They don't stay that big for very long. The thing to do is to have mozzarella, anchovies and mint to hand from mid to late June.

In other gardening news, the last runner bean has emerged from the soil of the trug and so have the pea shoots. To save them from the ghastly greenfly, I have put plastic pop-bottle cloches over them. One of the second-sowing radishes in the raised bed was ready, so I popped it out, gave it a scrub, cut off the greens for later and ate it.

The radishes are very small, and I think after a year or two of learning from trial and error I will attempt to grow big vegetables like the best-in-show type vegetable growers. I am not a great radish fan, preferring the green tops, to be honest, so perhaps I'll concentrate on bean production, or something like that. It would be lovely to have enough green beans for us to eat a handful every day.

Next year I may also splash out on a greenhouse because I am longing to try tomatoes and aubergines (eggplants). We eat a lot of tomatoes, and even though, yes, the canned Italian variety cost only 35 p a can, it would be marvellous to have delicious Calabrese salads.