Frittelle di San Giuseppe

19th of March is the day of St. Joseph. Being the main paternal character of the Christian tradition, this day is considered father’s day in Italy. And in the best of Italian tradition we do not do cards, or give presents such as chocolate golf balls and so on. We eat! San Giuseppe is the day of “Frittelle” . Again all the main bakeries will sell them during this period of time, but being far away from Florence I will have to prepare them myself. It takes some time but the result is worth the effort. I do not know how to translate Frittelle into English. If you prepare them and find a suitable English name, please send it to me.

Also a key point about Frittelle is that they are one of the few dishes in Florentine tradition with rice. Rice is traditional a northern Italy dish, and risotto is something that you better eat in Milan or in Piedmont. In the south of Italy rice is used in preparations such as stuffed tomatoes and peppers and arancini. However rice is almost unexistant in Tuscan cooking. Frittelle are an exception…. And a very good one.



1 liter of Milk

250g Rice

2 Eggs

Sugar

2 tablespoons Ron

50 g Raisins

100g Flour

1 untreated lemon

1 table spoon of sodium carbonate

1 vanilla bean

50 g of butter

Cook the rice in the milk with the butter and the vanilla bean until all the milk is absorbed (if it dryes out before the rice is cooked, add some water). Remove the vanilla bean and leave the rice to cool down (Practical tip, prepare the night before).
Separate the eggs and add the yolk to the rice. Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Add the rehydrated raisin, the ron,the flour, the grated lemon zest and at the very last moment the egg whites, being careful when mixing in order to keep the air bubbles in the mixture.
Prepare a large pan with plenty of peanuts oil to fry the frittelle. Heat the oil.
Add spoons of the mixture in the oil and fry turning occasionally.
Once brown remove from the pan, dry the excess oil and cover with sugar (crystal sugar). Frittelle are best enjoyed cold!

Occasionally the Italian maid will fill one frittella with a piece of cotton wool before frying. This is a sort of joke in order to laugh at whoever gets it. Once in my family all the frittelle were gone and the cotton had not appeared!!!! Someone had something hard to digest!