Frittura all’italiana is a fry-up of vegetables and meat that varies with each region and the seasonal availability of ingredients. It tends to be heavier in vegetables, and sometimes is a completely vegetarian dish. You musk ask to be sure. A smaller portion might also appear as an appetizer.
A light batter similar to tempura is made with flour, seasonings and either beer or fizzy water. A battered sage leaf may be used to test the oil. If you haven’t had fried sage leaves, especially in the Chianti sub-region of Tuscany where they grow very large, you’re really missing out on something simple and tasty.
Being “all’italiana” there is a great deal of variation allowed in the ingredients used. The frittura you see in the picture comes from Liguria. It is nearly all vegetables except for the little cigar-shaped packages in the upper left of the photo. These are crocchini alla genovese,
This is what the Albergo Ristorante Amici in Varese Ligure, one of our favorites, says of their crocchini alla genovese:
The crocchini are wrapped in wafers and may contain brain.
So yes, they were very good and now I feel smarter.
The other surprise ingredient in the frittura was the presence of little squares of dolce semolina. It’s unexpected to Americans, but is essentially semolina, milk, sugar, and vanilla that’s been batter-fried. In Ascoli Piceno you’ll find something in your frittura that seems almost the same: crema fritta, which doesn’t contain semolina.
The Frittura all’italiana is an adventure in eating.