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...