Fiori di zucca fritti alla romana (deep-fried stuffed courgette flowers)

Serves: 0
Course: Starter
Cooking Time: 0 hr 5 mins
Ingredients
  • Makes 10
  • 180g plain flour
  • 20g cornflour
  • I 0 courgette flowers
  • 2 x 125g balls of buffalo mozzarella (cow’s milk mozzarella will also do)
  • I 0 anchovy fillets
  • Groundnut or other flavourless oil, for deep-frying

For the batter, mix the flour and cornflour with 200ml ice cold water. Unlike most batters, you don’t want it to be too smooth and little pockets of flour are good as they will go really crispy. Take each courgette flower and trim away any excess stem. Then stuff each flower with a slice of mozzarella and an anchovy. Gently dip into the batter, holding onto the stem. Heat the oil to 180°C (if a cube of bread browns in 15-20 seconds, the oil is hot enough). Taking care of the hot oil, deep-fry the courgette flowers in batches for 2-3 minutes until crisp and a light golden brown. Remove from the oil, drain on kitchen paper and serve.