Trieste: The Frico

600 g raw potatoes
200 g aged Montasio cheese
200 g semi-mature Montasio cheese
1 large onion
extra virgin olive oil
salt

Trieste: the Frico. Peel the potatoes and blanch them whole for 10/12 minutes. They should be slightly soft. Peel the onions, cut them very thin and sauté them in a pan with 1 tablespoon of oil for a few minutes, they must be soft and blonde. Drain the potatoes and grate them with a large-hole grater into a bowl. In another bowl, grate the Montasio. Add the grated potatoes to the onions, turn and leave to mix for 2 minutes, salt and add the Montasio and mix everything together. The mixture will become a stringy and creamy paste within 15 minutes. Wipe out the pan and add 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Heat over the heat until the pan is hot, add the potato mixture, flatten and swirl with the pan, so it doesn’t stick. Cook over high heat, stirring constantly for at least 10 minutes. The bottom must be well detached and compact. Flip and cook the same way on the other side. Serve your Frico hot. Typical of Carnia in particular, Frico is a dish that also “borders” on Slovenia and Carinthia and has very ancient origins. Consider that the recipe was already mentioned in the mid-fifteenth century by the cook of the Patriarch of Aquileia. Although today Frico is considered a high quality dish, in the past its preparation was mainly aimed at recovering the scraps of cheese after shaping the shapes of the same. An exceptional dish if accompanied by the traditional homemade yellow polenta paired with a good Friulian red wine, such as Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso

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