Fried Calamari is a must-know for any aspiring Italian chef. I often serve mine alongside home-made chips, taking advantage of the already heated and ready-to-go deep fryer. Besides, that combination sort of gives a nod to the British classic fish and chips.
You may have noticed that most seafood platters are served with lemon wedges, which is interesting to me. The combination of the citric fruit and fish comes from the olden days when it was more difficult to keep fish fresh for a long time. As there wasn’t ice in those days, the product often developed an unpleasant odor after being stored or transported to a nearby city, the journey often taking a few days. Lemon was used to combat the smell of the less-than-fresh seafood. Others say that it was used like salt to help preserve the quality of the nutrients and avoid any bacterial problems.
But now that transportation and keeping our seafood fresh isn’t a problem, we still use lemon! My parents were against the use of lemon and claimed that it is an insult to the chef to use it. If you like the combination, you are free to eat it as you choose. However, maybe you could try it without and enjoy the flavours of the fish exactly as they should be savoured.
Buon' giorno! Welcome to my Italian food blog.
I am Italian, and proud of it! Italy has so much going for it: with one foot quite literally in the beautiful Mediterranean, my
country’s climate and location give us an amazing cornucopia of ingredients, which is why our culture is steeped in a hearty
romantic culinary tradition. My wife and I love our food, so all my recipes are designed for two. If you're cooking for an average
sized modern family - perhaps not the traditional extended Italian family - just double the quantities.