Fried Squash Blossoms Stuffed with Pumpkin Butter Ricotta

Have you ever been in your garden, harvesting some of your delicious bounty, and notice that your squash plants have these odd yellow flowers growing off of them?  If you have, I’m sure you have passed them right up and went about picking your green beans and tomatoes.  Well, I am here to tell you that you are missing out on one of the farmers markets most sought after ingredients!  The squash blossom is a flower that generally grows from the zucchini plant, something that most gardens are teeming with come summer.  My recipe stuffs them with ricotta cheese and sweet seasonal pumpkin butter, then they are fried in a fluffy beer batter.  They are also delicious stuffed with a goat cheese and herb spread, topped on a pizza, or tossed in a salad or pasta dish.  I hope that, perhaps, I’ve inspired you to not always by-pass these cute little flowers for the vegetables that grow with them!