Lignje na kolutiće
Crisp fried squid rings, the Adriatic konoba classic — a light coating, a hot pan, and lemon.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Total
- 35 min
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
- 800 g cleaned squid (tubes, tentacles optional)
- 150 g plain flour
- 50 g fine semolina or cornflour, for extra crunch
- 1 tsp salt, plus more to finish
- Black pepper
- 500 ml neutral oil, for frying
- 2 lemons
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 small bunch parsley, finely chopped
- Tartar sauce or aioli, to serve (optional)
Method
- Pat the squid dry. Slice the tubes into rings about 1 cm wide and leave the tentacles in pairs or small clusters. Keep them dry — damp squid spits and steams instead of crisping.
- Mix the flour, semolina, salt, and a generous grind of pepper in a wide bowl.
- Heat the oil in a deep pan to 180 °C. A pinch of the flour mix should sizzle and float straight away.
- Toss a handful of rings in the flour, shake off the excess in a sieve, and lower them into the oil. Work in small batches so the oil stays hot.
- Fry for 1½–2 minutes until pale gold. Squid turns rubbery if cooked longer, so err on the short side.
- Lift out with a slotted spoon onto paper, salt straight away, and keep warm while you fry the rest, letting the oil come back to 180 °C between batches.
- Toss the rings with the garlic and parsley, and serve at once with lemon wedges and, if you like, tartar sauce or aioli.
Squid wants either a very short cook or a very long one; this is the very short one. Eat it within minutes of leaving the pan, because the coating goes soft as it sits.