I had purchased some squash blossoms from the Farmer’s Market, and I was trying to decide what to do with them. I usually stuff them with cheese and fry them, but I didn’t really want to fry anything. Then I remembered I had about a dozen cherry tomatoes left over from making a tomato and okra stew, and I realized I could put the tomatoes inside of the blossoms. Since I didn’t want to fry, and boiling obviously wouldn’t work, I thought I’d try baking them in the oven. I even went out and bought a pack of toothpicks to help this work.

I started by briefly marinating the tomatoes in a mix of lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, pepper, chile flakes, and marjoram. After tossing them in the mix and then letting them sit for a minute, I fitted them into the blossoms, from which I had removed the stamens. I pierced them through with the toothpicks to hold the tomato is place, and then lined them up on an aluminum baking pan and put it into a 450 degree oven for about 20 minutes. This resulted in the blossoms becoming crispy and paper-like, dissolving in the mouth to make way for the pop of the juice, warm tomato. The seasoning wasn’t quite where I wanted it to be, but dipping the whole thing into the leftover marinade fixed that. It was basically a burst of early summer in my mouth.