Turnip fritters with tomato lemon sauce (tuscan)

12 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
8 Italian plum tomatoes; canned, crushed with liquid, see tip
½ cup Vegetable broth
1 Lemon; squeezed
1 teaspoon Chopped fresh oregano
Salt and pepper
1½ pounds Turnips; peeled and shredded in a food processor
1 medium Onion; minced
½ cup Finely chopped scallion tops
3 Eggs; lightly beaten
¼ cup Unbleached flour
1 small Fresh red chile pepper; minced
½ teaspoon Salt
¼ cup Vegetable oil; for frying

Directions

SAUCE

FRITTERS

1. To make the sauce, combine all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. TIP! Crush each tomato by sqeezing, in your hand; squeeze over the saucepan to catch the juice. The sauce may be made up to 1 day in advance, refrigerated and reheated.

2. For the fritters, place all ingredients save the oil in a large bowl and mix well. The batter will be somewhat loose.

3. Heat ¼ cup oil over high heat. Spoon ¼ cup of the batter into the skillet at a time, putting as many fritters in the pan as can fit without crowding. Cook until lightly browned on one side (3-5 mins), turn with a spatula and brown the other side. Drain the fritters on paper towls. Repeat with remaining batter until all the fritters are cooked. Top with tomato-lemon sauce and serve.

Recipe: "Frittelle di Rapa Bianca" from SOLO VERDURA, by Anne Bianchi (1997 Ecco Press). MAKES about 12 fritters; 60 minutes, with moderate difficulty.

TO SERVE: Fritters with soup or a salad; fritters in place of bread; brunch; snack.

Author's Notes: "Fritters are a Tuscan mainstay, whether made from chestnuts, baccala (Codfish), or as suggested here, turnips. I can remember many a winter afternoon sneaking into the kitchen when these fritters were being made and sliding one off the platter while the cook's back was turned. There were never any left over at my house, no matter how many were made, so I have absolutely no advice as to what to do should you make too many. Which is impossible, of course." --AB >>Edited by Pat Hanneman mc-PER FRITTER 37% cff: 88 cals; 3.7 g fat if half the oil from frying is retained. >Submited to MCrecipe 98-mar Pat's Note: The following LF method has worked well for crab cakes and potato pancakes.

Try it with the turnip fritters. If the first batch of 3 or 4 small fritters are not properly cooked with the lowfat method, cook the remaining batter in oil. MC-PER ¼-cup: without oil: 20% cff: 68 cals; 1.6g fat.

LF Version: The following advice comes from the Stanford University Healthy Heart Cookbook. Substitute egg whites and beat then into soft peaks. Fold the ingredients together to keep as much air as possible. Coat a large nonstick skillet or griddle lightly with vegetable spray. Use moderately hot heat: when a spray of water dances on the surface, spread 3-inch circles of the batter onto the hot surface. Make the fritters half-sized; thick fritters won't cook through. Cook about 1 to 2 minutes on each side.

Optional: Cover with parchment or a fine mesh splatter screen to aid cooking; do not use foil or a surface that will condense steam.

Recipe by: SOLO VERDURA, by Anne Bianchi Posted to MC-Recipe Digest by KitPATh <phannema@...> on Mar 19, 1998

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