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This can be made with pigs’ trotters as well. If you buy whole feet, you will need to open them out once they are blanched. Alternatively, you can sometimes buy feet that have already been boned and opened up.

If you don’t have a deep-fat fryer, use a deep saucepan no more than one-third full of oil – and don’t turn away and forget about it while it is heating up. If necessary, cook the calves’ feet in batches: preheat the oven before you start the preparation, then switch it off, and as you cook each batch, put them into the oven to keep warm.

If you wanted to serve this for a party, then rather than make the salad you could just serve the deep-fried strips with the mustard fruits (see page 482) in a pot, for people to dip the fritters into.

4 whole calves’ feet

400ml white wine vinegar

1 lemon

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 eggs

100g plain flour

100g breadcrumbs (made from bread that is 2-3 days old)

500ml sunflower oil for frying

50g Mostarda di Cremona (mustard fruits, see page 482), finely diced if large

2 handfuls of mixed salad leaves

salt and pepper

Put the calves’ feet into a large pan of cold water, bring to the boil, then drain. Put them into fresh cold water and bring to the boil again. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 2 hours, until tender. The meat will start to come away from the bone, but not completely. Leave to cool down in the water for about half an hour, to let the meat firm up a little.

Peel off the skin and remove any small hairs that might have been left behind. Take the meat off the bone with a knife, open it out and lay it flat on a tray. Cover it completely with the vinegar. Put another tray on top and weight it down, so the meat is pressed flat; that way it will be easier to cook and will look more attractive. Leave overnight in the fridge – up to 2 days if you want a more pronounced vinegary flavour.

With a vegetable peeler, remove the zest from the lemon, taking care to leave the bitter white pith behind. Then cut the zest into julienne strips. Squeeze the lemon, mix the juice with the olive oil and set aside.

Bring a small pan of water to the boil, put in the strips of lemon zest, then remove straight away with a slotted spoon. Bring the water back up to the boil, put the zest back in and remove it again straight away – this will soften it and take away a little of the bitterness.

Cut the meat from the calves’ feet into strips or squares, or whichever you prefer.

Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl and season them. Put the flour on a plate and the breadcrumbs on another, then dip each piece of meat first in the flour, then into the eggs, then into the breadcrumbs. Do this carefully, because the meat needs to be completely coated with flour before dipping it into the egg, but any excess flour should be shaken off, otherwise the egg will only stick in patches. Then make sure you dip the meat completely into the egg, again shaking off any excess – so when you dip it into the breadcrumbs you get a nice even coating. (Don’t be tempted to do another coating of egg and breadcrumbs as it will be too thick, and all you will taste is breadcrumbs.)

Preheat the sunflower oil to about 180°C (to the point where if you put in a little morsel of bread it will start to fry). Put in the pieces of breaded calves’ feet and fry for 2-3 minutes, moving them around with a fork or metal spoon, until golden all over. Remove, drain on kitchen paper and season with a little salt.

Drizzle your serving plates with the mustard fruits. Mix the salad leaves with the lemon zest, season with salt and pepper and toss with the reserved lemon oil. Pile the salad up on the plates and arrange the pieces of calves’ feet around.