Fried Zucchini

If you are like me (and most people out there), you love fried food. Anything that tastes good to begin with can only taste even more amazing when fried, right? When I was in Italy last summer, I had the ultimate pleasure of sampling every single vegetable you can imagine fried! The Italians have something called Fritto Misto, which is a dish of pieces of meat, seafood or vegetable dipped in a light batter and fried. 

When my mother and I are in Rome, we share an order of Fritto Misto everyday. We had fried artichokes, eggplant, peppers, lemons, apples. The beauty of this dish is that you can pretty much fry whatever your heart desires. One of my favorite fried vegetables however, (Besides my all time favorite, Fried Cauliflower) is fried zucchini.

I was inspired to make my fried zucchini when I went shopping at my local farmers market. They had the most beautiful, fresh zucchinis. I couldn't resist. What I love about this batter is how light it is because of the corn starch. It’s not thick and heavy where you can’t even taste the vegetable insides. It is a very thin batter, so don’t get nervous and think you made a mistake. Don’t be fooled by how thin it is, it will stick to your vegetables and fry up perfectly. It’s so crispy, you will love these. Let me know what you think!!

Fried Zucchini

3 zucchinis

1 cup of oil (for frying)

3/4 cup of cornstarch

¼ cup of flour

1 tsp. of baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons of salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon of garlic powder

½ teaspoon Italian seasoning

½ cup of water

1 egg

Clean your zucchinis and dry them. Then cut them into very thin slices (You can make them however thin or thick you like, but they will fry better when they are thin and taste even crispier.) Mix all of your dry ingredients, the cornstarch, flour, baking powder, salt, black pepper, garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Then add your water and egg and beat lightly.

Use a deep enough pan to fry. Set your stove on high heat and put the oil in the pan. You will want to wait for it to really heat up before beginning to fry. Once it is hot, dip your zucchini slices in the batter and carefully immerse in the oil. Allow each side to fry for at least two minutes. Take the zucchini and put on a wire rack to cool. Salt lightly and enjoy!!