"AC to avoid the hordes of angry Italian chefs."
It is, but the Italians are a bunch of gastronomic frauds anyway; pay them no heed. This is the country that sincerely believes having a differently shaped pasta is enough to make its "regional" pasta dish special in some way.
The Italians can deep-fry with the best of them, however:
Supplì — typically a sausage of ragù risotto with a lump of mozzarella cheese shoved inside, then deep fried in breadcrumbs; most popular in the Lazio region and its neighbours.
Arancino ("little orange") — very similar to supplì: deep-fried risotto, but a different shape with no tomatoes, originally from Sicily,
Calzone ("big sock") — usually a local meat product deep fried in a sort of pancake-ish batter;
Olive Ascolane— olives stuffed with meat and deep fried in breadcrumbs
And, of course, various forms of deep-fried cheese (usually mozzarella).
(Seriously, why else do you think older Italians are so bloody fat? They *invented* fast food! The Romans even invented the burger!)