Green, green, green is all I love – Verdure fritte!
Fried sage can sometimes look just like a cypress avenue in Tuscany.
#ChiantiClassicoJoyOfLife
For me, this summer is all about #ChiantiClassicoJoyOfLife! Meeting up with friends, chatting and laughing, enjoying a good glass of wine, and eating delicious food together! With the recipes I've shared with you over the past few weeks, I've tried to bring a little bit of that typical Tuscan lifestyle right into your home. Of course, I really hope you've tried one or two of the recipes yourself, and most importantly, that you enjoyed them! After Pane Toscano and Antipasti or appetizers , today I've got another small but super tasty dish – or rather, variations of a dish – ready for you. It's Verdure fritte – that's fried vegetables, which are often served with an aperitivo.
Fried Vegetables
a real treat for your taste buds
What might seem pretty simple at first glance actually explodes with flavor when you take a closer look or taste it. You'll generally find fried dishes quite often on Tuscan menus. The summer versions are zucchini or pumpkin blossoms, or sage leaves. Personally, I think the fried sage leaves are super cute because when they're fried, they look like tiny cypress trees – basically, the ultimate symbol of Tuscany. Just a little side note...
Zucchini blossoms are the classic when it comes to fried veggies. Anyone with zucchini in their garden knows the struggle: at some point, you just can't eat any more zucchini, but the plant keeps blooming like crazy! My tip: harvest the blossoms and fry them up crispy in olive oil, coated in batter.
Zucchini Blossoms
freshly harvested
I can practically hear the outcry: What? Frying in olive oil? All I can say to that is: Yes, it works wonderfully! And I don't know anyone who produces their own olive oil who wouldn't also use it for frying. What's true, of course, is that the valuable stuff in cold-pressed olive oil gets lost when it's heated. An oil only becomes harmful when it's so hot that it starts smoking. But that's true for any oil, really. Personally, I even like to use olive oil for frying that's past its best-before date. Because this oil isn't bad at all; it might have just lost a bit of its original complex flavors. But all in all, it's still a fantastic oil. Plus, for Verdure fritti, you don't always need a huge deep fryer; a non-stick pan with just a finger's worth of olive oil is totally enough.
The Batter – A Crispy Coat
As often happens, there are tons of different ways to make the batter that coats the veggies. Way back, I used a version with beer, then one with sparkling water and wheat flour, and now I've settled on the version with spelt flour and sparkling water. It gets even crispier with spelt flour because it naturally has more bite. This is my absolute favorite version right now!
And then the frying fun can begin! Heat olive oil in the pan. Take zucchini blossoms or sage leaves – but green spring asparagus, thinly sliced carrots, or even fennel also work great – coat them well in the batter and then fry them in the oil until the batter is nice and crispy. If you're using other veggies, just make sure they're not sliced too thick, or they won't cook all the way through. Sprinkle a pinch of salt on the freshly fried Verdure fritte and: Mmmmhhhhmmm, enjoy! A little drizzle of reduced balsamic vinegar with honey goes absolutely perfectly with this. But of course, a glass of Franciacorta or a glass of Sangiovese bianco is also – perfetto! So simple, so good, I love it!
