Deep-fried Seafood and Vegetables with Chilli Mayonnaise

Name: Deep-fried Seafood and Vegetables with Chilli Mayonnaise (Piccolo Fritto Misto di Pesce e Verdure con Maionese al Peperoncino)
Yield: Serves 6 as a first course
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: vegetable oil, for deep-frying; 150 g fine semolina; 150 g plain flour; Chilli Mayonnaise, for serving; 3 lemons, cut into cheeks; 6 freshly shucked oysters, on the half shell; 3 × 120 g squid, cleaned and skinned; 6 female zucchini (courgette) flowers, with baby zucchini attached; salt flakes, to taste; 150 g self-raising flour; 200 ml chilled water; 12 raw prawns, peeled and deveined, but with tails left intact

Piccolo Fritto Misto di Pesce e Verdure con Maionese al Peperoncino

Preparation info

Serves
6
as a first course

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

A Sardinian Cookbook

By Giovanni Pilu and Roberta Muir

Published 2012

About

This dish must be eaten straight away, while the batter is still hot and crisp, so you need to cook the seafood quickly before the zucchini flowers get cold; if possible, cook them at the same time in two pans. The salt and acid from the lemon juice, the crisp texture and the mouth-feel of the oil are all great appetite stimulants, making fritto misto a popular start to meals in Sardinia. You can add fillets of small fish, such as red mullet or small whiting, if you wish.