If elderflower cocktails are the drinks of the summer, in Italy as in France, more and more space is found for blooms in the kitchen.
There are over 1,600 different edible flowers, belonging to 50 different species.
Some almost crunchy, others silky.
A presence that can characterize a whole meal menu, with a wide choice of risotto with violets or calendula or clover up to fried tulips, with meringue and wisteria semifreddo desserts together with linden chocolates.
Proposals for all tastes and every season, as evidenced by the book "Hunger for flowers - Feeding on beauty", by Sandra Ianni with 80 flower stories and 80 flower recipes.
The sociologist, sommelier and expert in food culture and food and wine traditions, as well as passionate about ethnobotanics, in presenting the volume during the Food & Book course in Montecatini, underlined how spontaneous herbs and edible flowers constitute "a precious deposit of flavors and culture that must be discovered or recovered. We have over twenty thousand species of edible plants in the world, but less than twenty - the author stressed - those that provide 90% of our food. Yet herbs and flowers communicate the culture of a territory , and their value in healthy eating.
Harvesting, foraging, is not a mere exercise in aesthetics or chef virtuosity, but can bring people closer to nature.
Although caution is required in the collection of wild flowers and in their tasting, because they could trigger allergic reactions in particularly sensitive individuals.
The term natural - he underlined - is not synonymous with harmless substance, there are varieties of flowers that, in addition to not being edible, are toxic if not even poisonous ". It is better to collect the blooms accompanied by a guide, or to cultivate edible flowers. Alternatively, edible flowers can be purchased in some herbalists and specialized shops.
Fresh, dried, salted, frosted, candied or infused, there are many ways to use flowers in the kitchen.
In a stimulating journey that goes from the A of acacia to the Y of yucca, "in a union - the author emphasized - between the taste and the beauty that nature gives us".
Furthermore, according to a study conducted by Antea (Innovative activities for the development of the cross-border supply chain of edible flowers), flowers are a precious source of mineral elements and coloring pigments, useful for human well-being to the point of being considered an interesting source of nutraceutical foods. .
Among the practical advice in the illustrated volume: remove the white part at the base of the petal, of roses, marigolds and carnations as it could be too bitter.
There are numerous recipes of the peasant tradition, from poppy syrup to bread with elderflowers, from pancakes to sauces.
And in the confectionery they continue to be present in the form of candied fruit or sugared almonds.
Many starred chefs have re-evaluated flowers in the kitchen in a contemporary way, from Francesco Apreda to Enrico Crippa and Massimo Bottura, to name a few.
After all, as Sergio Endrigo sang at the Sanremo Festival, "to do everything you need a flower".
("Hunger for flowers - Feeding on beauty" by Sandra Ianni - 232 pages published on ISBN by the author - 25 euros) (ANSA).