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Potato frico


Frico

Frico is a traditional recipe from Friuli Venezia Giulia. Made with potatoes and cheese, it is a truly delicious simple dish. Let's find out together!

If you have never heard of frico you can imagine it as a sort of omelette made of potatoes and cheese . It is a typical dish of Friuli, in particular of Carnia, and has been included among the Traditional Friulian and Julian Agri-food Products . Originally the name was Fricò , then the local language underwent contamination with the Italian one and lost the accent.

Friulian frico was born as a poor dish to recycle cheese waste. In reality there are two versions: one made solely with cheese, crumbly and similar to croutons, and the other soft made up of potatoes, cheese and onion. The latter is usually served in combination with polenta and if you want to savor the goodness of the dish you can prepare it at home or go to the Frico Festival.

Cooking the frico
Cooking the frico

Ingredients

For the frico

  • Montasio – 500 g
  • Potatoes – 500 g
  • Extra virgin olive oil – 2 tablespoons
  • Salt – to taste
  • Pepper – to taste

Preparation

How to prepare frico with the original recipe

1

The preparation of frico is quite simple, however you need to pay attention to some steps. First, peel the potatoes and grate them with a grater with large holes. Place them in a pan with a drizzle of oil and cook for 10 minutes .

2

Remove the cheese rind (if you can't find Montasio you can opt for another variety as long as it is mature) and grate it like potatoes. Add it to the pan, season with salt and pepper and cook for about 20 minutes to allow the cheese to melt and obtain a sort of puree. Help yourself with a spatula to make your frico nice and round.

3

Using a lid, turn it like an omelette . Continue cooking until a crust forms on the other side too. Serve the frico hot, accompanied by polenta and speck, making sure to remove any excess grease before serving.

Here is a video with all the steps to make it.

Some versions include the addition of 200g of golden onions . If you like this modification, simmer them for 10 minutes in the oil before adding the potatoes and proceed as per the recipe.

Conservation

We recommend consuming your frico at the moment , when it is still hot and crunchy. However, you can store it for a maximum of 1 day in the refrigerator, well covered in cling film. We do not recommend freezing in the freezer.

Origin and history

The first written trace of the dish is contained in De arte coquinaria by Maestro Martino da Como. In this 15th century text it appears under the name case of patellecte and is a rather different dish from the one we know today.

In all cases, frico was born as fricò in the mountains of Carnia from the need to use cheese production waste , called strissuliss . These were nothing more than strips of cheese obtained by processing the cheese into molds and were often even given as gifts by the cheesemaker.

As regards the origin of the name , it seems to derive from the French fricot , in reference to a dish based on cooked vegetables. And it is from there that friccò, fricandò and fricassee derive. In the nineteenth century, following the introduction of the Italian language, many of the truncated words lost the accent on the final syllable and so fricò transformed into frico.

Read also
Here's how to prepare tasty Friulian blecs!

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