Friday, August 28, 2009

Cleo Coyle's Italian Fried Zucchini



Cleo Coyle's Italian Fried Zucchini



In America, when something is “breaded and fried,” the last step almost always involves a breading of some kind – flour, cornmeal, bread crumbs, or lately (for us fancy foodie folk) Japanese panko.

In Italy, vegetables and fish are often “indorati e fritti,” (or “dorati e fritti”) which translates to “gilded and fried”. With this method of frying, the food is dipped in flour, then in egg, and then fried. That’s right, there’s no final dredging in anything but egg.

The egg coating hitting the oil or butter in the pan is what gives the food its final gilded or golden color and the dish is almost always finished with a squeeze of fresh lemon. This is a delightful way to enjoy zucchini. How do I know? My husband can’t stand zucchini. But he absolutely loves this dish.


Like so many beloved dishes from native countries, an “Italian” recipe for a certain dish might differ from region to region, family to family, even house to house.

In the house where I grew up, in Western Pennsylvania, the zucchini were plentiful at the end of summer. Every morning my dad would bring in the day's freshly picked veggies from his garden and my mother and her older sister (who lived with us) would prepare them in different ways on different days.


I learned a lot from my Italian-born mother and aunt. Even so, their way of cooking Italian dishes is not always exactly my way. But daughters do grow into wives and mothers...and this is my house now.


For my own recipe of this classic Italian method
for frying zucchini, click the link below...
To get my recipe for
"Italian fried" zucchini,
click here

The recipe will appear in PDF format.
You can print it out or save it to your computer.

For more of my recipes or to find out more
about the books in my culinary mystery series,
click this link to my virtual home at:
CoffeehouseMystery.com






~Cleo CoyleCoffeeehouseMystery.com
"Where coffee and crime are always brewing...





12 comments:

  1. How cool! I didn't realize there was any other way to fry food (and you know how we like to fry things down here!) Plus we always have tons of zucchini in the summer...this is one I've gotta try.

    Elizabeth/Riley

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  2. Hooray for panko! My son doesn't like zucchini but will also eat it if I fry it. I have a few pieces from the farm and I was looking to try a new method. Let's see how the 5 year old does with them? :-) For those of us who like zucchini, I wonder if I could also do it in strips rather than disks?

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  3. Great way to do the whole process! Thanks for sharing!

    Avery

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  4. Elizabeth/Riley - Awesome. LOL on your Southern fried comment. Nothing better than good ol' Southern fried...well, anything!

    ThatBrunette - Aren't you proud of me? No cornmeal. LOL on the panko. It's my favorite crunchy breading for skinless chicken fillets. You can certainly cut the zukes into strips. But I really like the discs - they're the same shape as chips and kids can just pop them in their mouths (little ones and big ones - like 50 year olds). LOL! Enjoy your farm fresh produce. It's just the best at this time of year, isn't it?

    Avery - Thanks for dropping in!

    ~Cleo Coyle
    author of the Coffeehouse Mysteries
    Coffeehouse Mystery.com
    "Where coffee and crime are always brewing..."

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  5. I'm the only person in my family who likes squash of any kind. Maybe I could at least get my hubby to eat it this way! I never would have thought to end with the egg, but it sounds yummy.

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  6. Love this and love Panko crumbs. I could probably eat my weight in these. Congratulations Kaye on winning the gift certificate.
    Sam

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  7. Hi Janel - I'm not suprised at all about the general dislike of squash. The texture can be downright creepy when it's cooked - spongy, bland. My husband was shocked when I first made this for him. He assured me that he would never eat zucchini. Now he asks for this dish all summer long.

    Hi Sam - Thanks for dropping in from your award-winning blog - My Carolina Kitchen. Lol!

    ~Cleo Coyle
    Coffeehouse Mystery.com

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  8. This recipe looks fabulous! I want it tonight!! :) Thank you so much for sharing. I love this blog so much....the ideas...the books...the posts....the recipes. It just doesn't get any better!

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  9. I'm going to have to try your recipe - I've always just floured the zucchini but I do use a lot of panko - so just have to beg the neighbor for the squash!

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  10. Love these fried slices of zucchini. I also do this recipe with slices of aubergine. So Mediterranean!

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  11. I cannot wait to try this recipe. I love zucchini and lemons...never thought of a combination before.

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  12. Casey, Nancy, Laura (from the wonderful "World in a Pan" blog), and Lori from ostego -

    Thank you so much for your comments! (And good luck in our drawing - you are all officially entered! LOL!)

    ~Cleo
    Coffeehouse Mystery.com

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