Frittelle di Ciliegie (Cherry Fritters)
Not far from San Miniato is another pretty hilltop town of the Pisan countryside called Lari, where cherries have been cultivated for centuries. Once a year, on the verge of summer, nearly twenty native varieties of cherry can be sampled at the town’s cherry festival (one of Tuscany’s oldest sagre, or food festivals). At the festival’s market you can find not only fresh cherries, piled high in baskets, but also cherry delicacies, from pies to liqueurs to jams in various shades of scarlet – there’s even cherry-scented beer. But, by far, the most popular attraction is the stall where a team of nonne in their aprons diligently whip up a paddling pool–sized bowl of batter and deep-fry fresh cherry fritters in an equally giant pot of bubbling oil. The line is long, but it’s worth the wait for a paper cone full of piping hot, sugar-crusted fritters. This is how I recreate them at home.
Ingredients 9
200 g plain flour (all-purpose flour)
3 tsp baking powder
120 g sugar
1 lemon zest, finely grated
1 egg
180 ml full-cream milk (whole milk)
Splash Alchermes, optional
200 g cherries, fresh, pitted, roughly chopped
vegetable oil, for deep frying
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Method 5
Place the , , 2 tablespoons of the , the finely grated , and a pinch of salt in a mixing bowl. Stir together briefly, then add the and , whisking until you have a smooth batter, rather like pancake batter. Add a splash of , if using, and stir through the pitted, roughly chopped .
Place the rest of the in a small bowl (I prefer something shallow).
Pour enough oil into a small–medium saucepan so that the fritters can float. Heat over a medium heat to 160°C (320°F), or until a cube of white bread dropped into the oil turns golden brown in about 15 seconds.
Give the batter a stir in case the cherry pieces have fallen to the bottom, then drop a tablespoon of batter into the hot oil and fry evenly, turning to cover all sides, until deep golden brown, about 2½–3 minutes (see Note). They will puff-up into walnut-sized fritters. Aim to cook several at a time, in batches.
Transfer the cooked fritters to a wire rack lined with paper towels to drain the excess oil for a moment before rolling the fritters, still hot, in the . These are best eaten warm, right away.
Emiko Davies' tips
These fritters should be fried rather slowly so that they cook all the way through – if the temperature is too high, they will brown too quickly and remain raw inside. I suggest sacrificing the first one or two fritters by looking inside to ensure they are cooked through to the centre. Once you have the temperature stabilised and the timing right, frying these fritters is a cinch. It is a good idea to scoop out any little drops of batter that have fallen into the oil before they burn, and to replenish the oil about halfway through.
