“Travels” in Friuli

There is a great region-specific cookbook that takes you through the diverse areas of the small region of Friuli in north-east Italy. The region borders Austria and Slovenia and the recipes involve a lot more potato than you might expect. There’s also a good amount of horseradish.

I have made several recipes from the cookbook, and have several more on my to do list. One that I have not done yet, but hope to get to soon, is a potato stuffed pasta in veal jus. The filling is potatoes, shallots, garlic, and pancetta. It sounds a bit like an amazing cross between a pierogi and a tortellini.

If you like bitter flavors, as I very much do, there’s an excellent salad with radicchio and horseradish, with cheese and grated apples to round out the flavors and mellow out the bitter. The recipes are also quite heavy on meat, including one recipe for a whole roasted veal shank. I’ve done a modification of that recipe with the osso buco cut rather than an entire shank.

The recipe that I keep returning to from this cookbook is the Frico Caldo. The recipe calls for Montasio cheese (aged six months or less), but I cannot always get Montasio, so I’ve have tried it with Fontina (a bit too runny) and with Asiago (more successful). This dish is basically riced potatoes, chopped potatoes, a little bit of onion, and lots of cheese – fried until the cheese browns. It’s amazing.

The recipe from the cookbook makes a large frico that serves 6-8, and instructs that, after the first side is sufficiently browned, a plate should be put over the fry pan and the pan flipped, then the frico slipped back into the pay with the uncooked side down. I have not managed a perfect flip, probably because I am perpetually scared of getting hot oil all over myself when trying to do this. My recipe below is a variation using Asiago cheese and frying in smaller pieces to avoid the big flip. That is a 12 inch fry pan and a full-sized dinner plate in the photos below. That’s a whole lot of potato and cheese.

Frico Caldo

Course: AppetizersCuisine: Friuli

Servings

4

servings

Ingredients

• 2 medium russet potatoes (about 1/2 pound)

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1/4 cup minced yellow onion

• 1 cup shredded asiago cheese (not aged)

• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt

• 1/8 tsp grated nutmeg

Directions

• Scrub the potato skins well. Boil potatoes in large pot of unsalted water about 30 minutes, until fork-tender, but not falling apart. Remove from heat, drain, and let cool until cool enough to peel. Peel the potatoes. Rice one potato into a large bow. Cut the other potato to a medium/small dice (between 1/4 and 1/2 inch) and add to the same bowl with the riced potato.
• Heat one tablespoon of olive oil small fry pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent but do not let the onions brown. Keep an eye on them, and lower heat if they start to brown before they are cooked through.
• Add the cooked onion, shredded cheese, salt, and nutmeg to the potatoes. Gently mix by hand until evenly mixed. Divide in half and shape each half into a patty shape about 3/4 inch thick.
• Heat remaining tablespoon of olive oil in medium non-stick pan over high heat until the oil is very hot – almost to the smoke point. Add one potato patty and press down with back of spatula to about 1/2 inch thick and shape edges with spatula to keep them even.
• Reduce the heat to medium. Cook without touching it until a golden brown crust starts to form around the edges – about 5 minutes. Once there is a nice crust, flip gently with large spatula and continue to cook about 5 minutes more until golden brown on the second side.
• Slide onto a serving plate and let rest a couple minutes before serving.
• Repeat with the second frico (you can keep the first warm on a plate in a warm, not hot, oven to serve together).
• Cut each into two servings. Serve with salad of bitter greens with balsamic vinegar to cut the richness.