STUFFED PUMPKIN FLOWER

Recipe by chef Felice Lo Basso from MarieClaire.it

Serves 4

Preparation:

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Peel potatoes, slice them roughly, put them in a pan with extra virgin olive oil e some water. Cook until they become a puree. Now add the anchovies and blend with a minipimer to get a smooth and firm puree.

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Take the pumpkin flowers and cut the bottom part getting rid of the pistil, wash then stuff them with the potatoes and anchovies puree, close them trying to give a cylindrical shape.

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Slice the tomatoes and bake them for 3 hours at 80°C.  Cover a rounded mold with the baked tomato petals and stuff with the eggplants previously cut into cubes and sauteed with olive oil and salt. Close the mold with tomato petals and press firmly in order to get a half sphere shape.

Cook the sweet olives in olive oil. Sautee in a pan 2 Perlina® eggplants per each person, slice them in a half lenghtwise.

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Now assemble the dish. Place the half sphere in the middle, the pumpkin flowers and the 4 Perlina eggplants halves next to it, then finish with olives and salt flakes. Decor as you like with a little basil sauce and crunchy cheese.