Recipe: Sage Fritters

This recipe is absolutely delicious and perfect when you want to indulge in something savoury. Great as a snack and served with crisp chilled white wine. This recipe is typical from the Liguria region.

I have used 100 grams of Flour, 200 ml of Water (but you can use beer if you fancy it), a teaspoon of dried yeast, some Sage leaves, I've found beautiful big sage leaves at Waitrose, and Cantabrian  Anchovies by L'Isola d'Oro that you can find at Fratelli Camisa online.

Put the yeast in the water and mix it so that it will melt away.

Add the mix to the flour mixing carefully in order to have a smooth mixture.

Cover with cling film and leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Select the biggest leaves and keeping the stem, put them on a chopping  board and put  half fillet of Cantabrian Anchovies on each leaf. Remember to leave  the same number of leaves aside. Meanwhile you have retrieved the batter from the fridge.

Then with the leaves set aside you cover the others holding the anchovies.  Put a frying pan on the hob and using sunflower oil start heating up the oil. The quantity should arrive nearly to the edge of the frying pan. To check that the oil is ready put a drop of the batter in the frying pan and if it sizzle cooking  immediately it is ready.

Take one leaf of sage at the time, cover  it with the batter, holding the stems and the top so the anchovies will stay put and then put it in the frying pan.

Fry the leaves turning them after a couple of minutes so that they will have a nice golden colour. The anchovy, safe in between the leaves will stay encased by the batter.

Put them on a sheet of kitchen paper so that they will shed the excess oil from the cooking. I did not put salt in the batter because the anchovies are already salted.

Ready, aromatic and delicious, with the sweetness of the sage and the batter and the saltiness of the L'Isola d'Oro Cantabrian Anchovies in oil. www.lisoladoro.it