SHF2 : Frittelle di mele

Frittelle di mele (fried apple rings) are loveSicily's entry for the second edition of Sugar High Fridays, thought of and hosted by The Domestic Goddess - whose theme was... Apples!

Clearly apples are an obvious problem for a blog dedicated to the customs and food of Sicily. Very simply, Sicily is not really an apple place. You could probably grow apples in Sicily, Etna does after all offer an appropriate climate at the right height (as long as no lava is spewing all over the place!). But really, people focus more on chestnuts and walnuts and pistachios. However, you do find apples in Sicily - as all the truck drivers will tell you: "We take oranges up to Milano and bring apples down to Sicily".

To redeem ourselves for this digression our apples are served with honey and sweet wine, all very Sicilian. OK - so on to the food.

The ingredients are:

2 firm and sweet apples that are large enough to make nice rings
6 tablespoons of flour
1/2 a tablesoon of yeast (vanilla flavoured)
A sweet white wine (in our case Moscato di Noto)
Medium sized piece of fresh ginger
Icing sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 egg
Honey
Olive oil for frying (or sunflower oil if you prefer)

The first step is to prepare the batter that we will dip the apples in. Slightly beat the egg. Mix the flour with the yeast, and then unite with the egg. Keep mixing and adding sweet wine to the mixture until you get a dense and slightly sticky consistency. Add the grated ginger, cover and allow to rest for a few minutes. You can also add some lemon zest to the mixture.

Secondly, prepare the apples just by removing the core, peeling all around and slicing into rings. Pour the lemon juice over them and sprinkle with the sugar.

Now we are ready to put the two together. Prepare a pan with abundant oil for frying. Each apple ring is first dipped in the batter and the on to the frying pan - they shouldn't really need more than 15 seconds in the frying pan. The aim is to get a nice golden colour. Fried and crispy on the outside, warm and moist inside - but with some firmness in the apples still. Place on an absorbant paper to get rid of the excess oil and they are ready to serve.

Serve almost immediately with a nice glass of cold Moscato di Noto and drizzled with honey.