Spanish and Italian ways with tomatoes

Spanish : Pan de tomate. 

I have some Spanish students at the moment. We have brief discussions about food, never enough to satisfy my curiosity. Perhaps I need to invent a speaking activity to get them talking about the cuisines of their country. Two birds, one stone and everything. I did manage to get a conversation about tomatoes and tapas brewing and inevitably we arrived at this incredibly simple snack.

Squash blossoms and chive flowers

I am always seduced by beautiful produce. Even when I cannot see any practical or immediate use for it, I still have to buy it. A very good point in case is the incredibly pretty squash blossom. I have seen and attempted many recipes with this flower, usually involving some sort of stuffing mixture like ricotta or cream cheese, trying unsuccessfully to prise open the petals and remove the stamen without ripping the delicate things. Battering and frying them is something that always looks so wonderful in recipe books, but is difficult to achieve at home without making a mess and ruining them. So, how can they be used without mastering the stuffing and battering technique?