# Italian weekend: the "frico" recipe



## Luca Lazzari (Aug 2, 2011)

Nice weekend in the Friuli region, NE Italy, with my old school friend Marco. I ate really well, not suprisingly, and spent very little, somewhat surprisingly... And I discovered a gooood culatello, the culatello from Sauris. But the most typical local recipe that we tasted was the "frico" with potatoes, that is cheese cooked with mashed potatoes.
4 servings:  dice 400 g of Montasio cheese (or Asiago) into small pieces, then boil 400 g of potatoes and mash them up roughly with a fork. Put the mashed potatoes in a pan and sauté for 5 minutes (without adding fats). Add the cheese and press it into the mashed potatoes with a fork. Try to form a round shape with the potatoes and cheese in the pan. When the fritter is brown on the bottom, turn it without breaking it and get the other side brown, too. When both sides have turned brown, turn off the heat and leave for a couple of minutes, then remove the frico from the pan and serve it! The result must be crisp outside and soft inside.
It's very simple, no fats, no added salt, just cheese and potatoes, but it's really tasty!

Ciao! Or, as they say in Friuli, mandi!


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## Zhizara (Aug 2, 2011)

That sounds really tasty.  Welcome to DC.


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## Luca Lazzari (Aug 2, 2011)

Zhizara said:


> That sounds really tasty.  Welcome to DC.



Thank you.
Frico is tasty! Especially with a glass of good wine...


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## Snip 13 (Aug 2, 2011)

Sounds fabulous!


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## jennyema (Aug 2, 2011)

I confess to making fricos all the time.  It's an addiction, they are so good.

I have access to all kinds of great cheeses here but Montasio is hard to find.  Sometimes I bring it back from NYC but generally I make it with an aged asiago or manchego.

I also top mine with a lightly dressd arugula salad from my garden.


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## Luca Lazzari (Aug 2, 2011)

jennyema said:


> I confess to making fricos all the time.  It's an addiction, they are so good.
> 
> I have access to all kinds of great cheeses here but Montasio is hard to find.  Sometimes I bring it back from NYC but generally I make it with an aged asiago or manchego.
> 
> I also top mine with a lightly dressd arugula salad from my garden.



You're tempting me! How do you prepare this salad? I mean, you just dress the arugula (salt, oil, winegar?) and then place it on top of the frico?


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## Bolas De Fraile (Aug 2, 2011)

Luca Lazzari said:


> Thank you.
> Frico is tasty! Especially with a glass of good wine...


Chin Chin Luca are you a Rossoneri? also do you cook the Scorfano fish.


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## Luca Lazzari (Aug 2, 2011)

Bolas De Fraile said:


> Chin Chin Luca are you a Rossoneri? also do you cook the Scorfano fish.



Cin cin, Bolas. 
YES I AM. Sempre forza Milan.

And for the scorfano, I don't, but since you're asking I think I will try it in the next days. I'll keep you informed!


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## jennyema (Aug 2, 2011)

Luca Lazzari said:


> You're tempting me! How do you prepare this salad? I mean, you just dress the arugula (salt, oil, winegar?) and then place it on top of the frico?


 
I make the frico just as you do (more or less).  I have experimented with shredded potato, too.

On the side I put the washed greens in a bowl and very lightly dress with a vinaigrette of some sort, depending on my mood.

I pile the greens on the frico when serving.  The crispy, spicy arugula and the acid are very good counterparts to the cheesy frico.  Plus then I can justify eating it as a whole meal since real vegetable matter is involved.

And of course, a glass or three of some good wine!

I am very glad you posted this recipe, as it couldnt be easier or more delicious!


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## Luca Lazzari (Aug 2, 2011)

jennyema said:


> I make the frico just as you do (more or less).  I have experimented with shredded potato, too.
> 
> On the side I put the washed greens in a bowl and very lightly dress with a vinaigrette of some sort, depending on my mood.
> 
> ...



Thank you!
I will surely try it, but with no more than one glass of wine (for each arugula leaf).


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## Bolas De Fraile (Aug 2, 2011)

Thought so, I support that other good "socialist" team in red Liverpool FC my home city. I also used to do a lot of business in Mussolente, have you visited Croatia?


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## Luca Lazzari (Aug 2, 2011)

Bolas De Fraile said:


> Thought so, I support that other good "socialist" team in red Liverpool FC my home city. I also used to do a lot of business in Mussolente, have you visited Croatia?



I still remember when the Brigate Rossonere, and everyone of us in San Siro, sang your hymn after Hillsborough.
No, the only time me and my old friend Marco crossed the boundary to enter Yugoslavia (1978, more or less...), the guards stopped us for three hours to search the car. Marco was a mad Milan fan, and his car didn't looked exactly reassuring... Then we had little time left and stopped in Slovenia.
Fantastic grilled meat for a few cents near Kranjska Gora!


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## Bolas De Fraile (Aug 2, 2011)

We came back from a month in Serbia a few weeks ago where the pig is king, we usually spend a month with family on Hvar near the Island of Korcula the birth place of the Croatian Marco Poloclic on pic


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## Zereh (Aug 2, 2011)

Luca Lazzari said:


> I will surely try it, but with no more than one glass of wine (for each arugula leaf).



 I like the way you think!


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## Luca Lazzari (Aug 2, 2011)

Zereh said:


> I like the way you think!



And it's one of the few areas in which I do what I think...


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## Luca Lazzari (Aug 2, 2011)

Bolas De Fraile said:


> We came back from a month in Serbia a few weeks ago where the pig is king, we usually spend a month with family on Hvar near the Island of Korcula the birth place of the Croatian Marco PoloView attachment 11675clic on pic



WONDERFUL photograph!
Here in Pavia the pig is king, too.
Our dialect word for "pig" is "nimàl", that is like the Italian word "animale", animal: for us the pig is THE animal...


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## buckytom (Aug 3, 2011)

what kind of pan do you use to make the frico, luca? is it non-stick?

i'm curious since you mentioned adding no fat, and the potatoes still get browned and don't break up.

jenny, what's the difference between a frico and a potato and cheese knish? maybe deep frying?


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## Luca Lazzari (Aug 3, 2011)

buckytom said:


> what kind of pan do you use to make the frico, luca? is it non-stick?
> 
> i'm curious since you mentioned adding no fat, and the potatoes still get browned and don't break up.
> 
> jenny, what's the difference between a frico and a potato and cheese knish? maybe deep frying?



Yes, I use a nonstick, flat pan.
It's called "testo", it's the modern version of a typical large and flat pan they use in Romagna to prepare the piadina. I'm currently using it almost for everything, because it's large and I can cut the fats. When I can, I keep the heat not too high, too. I prefer to spend some minutes more in front of the fires, fiddling with my food, I'm a sort of a maniac... 
However I think you can use a little butter with the frico.


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## Bolas De Fraile (Aug 3, 2011)

Tom mate putting my mohel hat on a knish is wrapped in pastry and has a crimped flap my speciality


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## Bolas De Fraile (Aug 3, 2011)

Luca the best pizza emerges from a wood fired oven. The best pizza I have eaten was a potato pizza near Pescara. I dont have a wood fired oven in the UK but I do have an old Bompani Range with a spit, the oven gets to 625f on a good day, I use a stone and make my own dough (50/50 milk and water) and still it does not taste the same, any tips.


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## Luca Lazzari (Aug 3, 2011)

Bolas De Fraile said:


> Luca the best pizza emerges from a wood fired oven. The best pizza I have eaten was a potato pizza near Pescara. I dont have a wood fired oven in the UK but I do have an old Bompani Range with a spit, the oven gets to 625f on a good day, I use a stone and make my own dough (50/50 milk and water) and still it does not taste the same, any tips.



In my personal experience, if you don't have a good oven fueled with good wood, you can't get the real thing. Even in Italy we have some barbarians that prepare pizzas with electric ovens,  but it's definitely not the same thing.
However I'll ask around to get some good guideline!


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## purple.alien.giraffe (Aug 3, 2011)

It's recipes like this that make me wish the hubby wasn't diabetic. I really miss potatoes.


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## Luca Lazzari (Aug 3, 2011)

purple.alien.giraffe said:


> It's recipes like this that make me wish the hubby wasn't diabetic. I really miss potatoes.



I know what you're talking about. I had to CUT a lot of things, like bread and pasta (cutting, not deleting), thanks to blood glucose and gout...
Well, I've been eating like a hog for 40 years, now it's like I'm having a little rest...


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## purple.alien.giraffe (Aug 3, 2011)

Fortunately the hubby's various health problems have been able to be controlled through diet so far. So many of the medications he'd have to take otherwise have terrible side affects and a host of interactions with various foods, many of them healthy and part of his current diet to control his medical conditions. I'll gladly continue to keep potatoes to a rare indulgence so he can avoid all that nonsense. But I'm thinking this will definitely have to be our next dietary splurge. Haven't had potatoes in a few months.


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## Luca Lazzari (Aug 4, 2011)

purple.alien.giraffe said:


> Fortunately the hubby's various health problems have been able to be controlled through diet so far. So many of the medications he'd have to take otherwise have terrible side affects and a host of interactions with various foods, many of them healthy and part of his current diet to control his medical conditions. I'll gladly continue to keep potatoes to a rare indulgence so he can avoid all that nonsense. But I'm thinking this will definitely have to be our next dietary splurge. Haven't had potatoes in a few months.



Yes, diet can work very well, but I found out that you have to do a lot of homework (and that's good). My doctor just gave me a list of "forbidden" food: I suppose he believed I could survive eating gravel and blades of grass...
BUT I was forced to learn about food, how to count calories, how to build different weekly menus, learn new recipes and so on.


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