Frico

Cheese and potato pressed into a pan until the underside forms a crust you can lift whole.

Not vegetarian — contains cheese whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

• 400 g montasio or a firm mountain cheese, half young and half aged, grated
• 400 g waxy potatoes, boiled and sliced
• 1 onion, sliced thinly
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• black pepper

Method

1. USE TWO AGES OF CHEESE if you can. The young one melts and binds; the aged one browns and gives the crust its flavour. All young and it is a sticky mass, all aged and it will not hold together.
2. Cook the onion in the oil over a low heat for 12 minutes until soft and sweet.
3. Add the sliced potato and press it down, cooking 5 minutes until it begins to colour.
4. Scatter the grated cheese evenly over and press the whole thing flat with a spatula.
5. Cook over a MEDIUM heat, undisturbed, for 8 to 10 minutes. The cheese will melt, then bubble, then the noise will change as the fat renders out and the underside begins to fry in it.
6. When it slides as one piece and the edge is lacy and brown, slide it onto a plate and invert it back into the pan.
7. Cook the second side 5 minutes. Serve in wedges with pepper, and eat it hot — cold frico is rubber.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes