Having just come back from Rome, it is safe to say I am missing the great food very much and so I decided to create a little Italian magic in the kitchen in the form of one of my all time favourite recipes.

Zucchini Fritti are the Italian equivalent of chips and to be perfectly honest, I would ALWAYS pick them over the humble potato. They are utterly addictive and being much lighter than the humble spud, you can end up eating A LOT more of them than normal chips… and why not? They are damn tasty and actually really easy to make. For a bit of diversity, I like to throw in some aubergines into the mix because the two vegetables work really well together and as long as you cut them into same size strips, they cook at the same time and the result is totally mouthwatering…. My perfect kind of food!

Courgette and Aubergine ‘Chips’ (Zucchini e Melanzane Fritti) – serves 2

2 courgettes

1 medium sized aubergine

1 litre of cooking oil (I use sunflower and think its best)

2 pints of milk (full fat or semi skimmed only)

300g plain flour for dusting

Without peeling them, slice your courgettes and aubergines into thin chips (about 7mm width) and then place all the chips in a bowl and cover completely with milk and leave to soak for an hour. This process breaks their fibres down and absorbs a bit of moisture making them cook better. Leave them to rest in the milk for an hour.

After about 45 minutes, take a large cooking pot and add your oil and turn the hob on to a medium – high heat (or medium flame is using gas). Add your flour into another bowl and once the oil is bubbling nicely (but not aggressively) take handfuls of the chips out of the milk, place them in the bowl with the flower and make sure they get a good coating. The milk soaking plus the flour will actually make the perfect batter coating for the chips.

Once the chips are nicely coated in flour, place them in a sieve and shake off the excess flour over the sink or into a bin and then carefully add them into the hot oil. The oil should bubble nicely once the chips are added and the chips should cook in approximately 8 minutes or until nice and golden. Once done, place them on a plate lined with a double layer of kitchen paper and salt immediately with Maldon sea salt. Repeat until all the chips are done and enjoy!