“Mozzarella in a carriage” a golden-crusted fried mozzarella sandwich.  A little bit of Italian comfort food almost a cliché for Italian snack food, just add tomato sauce and you have a kind of inverted pizza (after all pizza dough is really just a simple bread dough)

Ingredients

Country white bread or rustic Italian bread, sliced

200 gram fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced

1 cup milk

100 grams fine dry bread crumbs

1 large egg

Salt and freshly ground white pepper

1 1/2 cups marinara sauce (bottled variety is fine)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Olive oil, for frying

Preparation

Place a slice of mozzarella on a slice of bread and top it with a light sprinkling of basil. Cover with another slice of bread, making a sandwich. Remove the crust from the bread and cut the sandwich into quarters.

Put 1 cup of milk in a shallow bowl. Put the bread crumbs in a shallow dish or plate. Dredge both sides of the sandwich, first in the milk, then in the bread crumbs, pressing the edges lightly to seal the sandwiches.

Put the sandwiches, covered in to the refrigerator. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

Whisk the eggs in a shallow bowl, then whisk in the salt, pepper and a little milk.

Heat a shallow amount of olive oil in a frying pan over medium high heat.

Remove the sandwiches from the refrigerator and, as the oil comes to temperature, dip each sandwich in the egg mixture, allowing the excess to drip off. Fry in batches of 3 or 4, turning once, until golden brown on both sides, about 5 or 6 minutes per batch. Drain sandwiches on paper towels.

To serve: heat the Marinara sauce and pour a little onto serving plates. Arrange a few sandwiches on top of the sauce and pour a little more sauce over the sandwiches. Garnish with a little chopped