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| Pizza con fiori di zucca e acciughe |
At the moment, my courgettes are producing lots of flowers. Rather than frying them, stuffing them or turning them into yet another courgette dish, I had an idea.
I trimmed a good handful of courgette flowers, grabbed a jar of anchovies and headed to my new favourite Neapolitan trattoria, Trattoria Napoletana, to ask Chef Alessandro a favour. Fortunately, he said yes. It helps that he is my friend.
A little tomato sauce, plenty of mozzarella, my freshly picked courgette flowers and anchovy fillets.
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| I love anchovies. I know they divide opinion, but I am firmly in the love camp. A few good anchovy fillets can transform a dish, adding saltiness, depth and that wonderful umami flavour without necessarily making the whole thing taste of fish. Which brings me to a book I read in 2024: Christopher Beckman's A Twist in the Tail: How the Humble Anchovy Flavoured Western Cuisine. |
The flowers soften in the heat of the pizza oven, their delicate sweetness working beautifully with the salty anchovies. The mozzarella brings everything together, while the tomato adds just enough acidity. And all of it sits on the Neapolitan pizza base. And what a flavour combination. Pizza on umani steroids!
This is precisely the sort of cooking I love: taking what is in season, keeping the ingredients recognisable and letting someone who really knows what they are doing turn them into something special.
I may have created a dangerous precedent. As long as the courgettes keep flowering, Alessandro may see me coming through the door again with another container full of fiori di zucca. Well, I promise not to.
Anyway, I owe him a favour now.
A little shout-out to my new favourite Neapolitan trattoria, Trattoria Napoletana in Kivistö. Proper Italian food, good ingredients and, most importantly, a chef and staff who are always kind and happy to feed hungry people.
Opened in April 2026, Trattoria Napoletana is owned by Luigi, who moved to Finland because his daughter, a keen figure ice skater, wanted to train here.