My mother has an extraordinary passion for pumpkin flowers especially when they are fried with stringy mozzarella inside! No wonder then that one of the recipes she has revised has the pumpkin flower as its main ingredient.
It is a very good pasta, with a delicate creamy dressing.

Mum's tagliatelle with zucchini flowers

  • Preparation time: 30 minutes
  • Ingredients for 4 servings
  • Difficulty: Average difficulty recipe

  • Ingredients
  • For pasta:
  • 2 eggs
  • 200 gr or 7 oz flour
  • For the seasoning:
  • 3 fresh onions
  • 2 bunches of pumpkin flowers
  • 110 gr or 4 oz of cream
  • 1 egg
  • 1 saffron sachet
  • 40 gr or 1 ½ oz of grated Parmesan cheese
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  1. Instructions
  2. Make the pasta. Pour the flour onto the pastry board creating a hole in the center and pour the eggs that you will have slightly beaten into the center hole. Knead until the mixture is smooth. Cover with cellophane and let it rest at room temperature for one hour.
  3. Pull the dough with the sheeter up to a thickness of two millimeters or 0 5⁄64inch. Flour the mixture well and cut it into lozenges of about four millimeters or 0 5⁄32inch.
  4. Boil the pasta water in a saucepan.
  5. In a serving dish, mix the egg with the saffron, the cream, and the Parmesan. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  6. In a nonstick pan, sauté the chopped onions over low heat. Add the pumpkin flowers divided in half and without the pistil.
  7. Salt the pasta cooking water. Cook the tagliatelle for about three to four minutes. Drain and stir in the dish with the cream and egg mixture. Add the onions with the pumpkin flowers and serve.

Tips to ensure the success of the dish:

  • Saffron should be bought in pistils and not in powder because it is much better.
  • The process of the onions is always the same: cook them covered for the first few minutes to let the vegetation water out. Then the onion is uncovered and cooked in its water and a little hot water is added if necessary.
  • Pumpkin flowers should never be cooked for a long time.
  • To best cook pasta, 1 US quart of water must be considered for every serving.

 From left: Mum with her sister Giuliana and her cousin Silvana in Villa Borghese