Recipe: Fried Cheese Frico

Fried Cheese Frico

Happy & Healthy Cooking,

Fun-Da-Mentals Kitchen Skills

• fry :

  to fry in a pan in a small amount of fat.

• measure :

  to calculate the specific amount of an ingredient required using a measuring tool (like measuring cups or spoons).

History of Fried Cheese!

• There are many varieties of fried cheese, which originated sometime during the Middle Ages. In some recipes, the cheese is battered or breaded before frying; in others, it is fried by itself, creating more of a cheese crisp.
• In 1393, a recipe for battered fried cheese sticks was published in a medieval French guidebook for women, Le Ménagier de Paris. 
• A fried cheese dish from Italy, "frico," is a traditional dish from Friuli in northeast Italy. The first recipes for frico, from around 1450, were developed by an Italian chef, Maestro Martino. There are two types of frico: the soft version, a crisp, golden cheese and potato cake, and the thin version, a cheese crisp. 
• When fried by itself, shredded cheese creates thin cheese crisps, like the thin type of frico. These are served as snacks or garnishes for salads or soups. The cheese becomes flexible as it heats and can be shaped before crisping, sometimes even into small baskets or bowls! 
• Battered or breaded fried cheese dishes include fried mozzarella sticks. They grew in popularity in the United States in the 1970s when snack-sized "string cheese" was created by Frank Baker, a Wisconsin cheesemaker. Mozzarella sticks are served as an appetizer and may be accompanied by a marinara or fruit sauce for dipping.
• Other fried cheese dishes from around the world include  "cașcaval pane" from Bulgaria and Romania, fried or grilled "halloumi" cheese from the Middle East, "malakoff" from Switzerland, "queso frito" from South America, and "saganaki" from Greece.

Let's Learn About Italy!

• Italy became a unified country in 1861, only 150 years ago. It is sometimes called "bel paese" or "beautiful country."  
• Italians invented the piano and the thermometer! 
• In ancient Roman mythology, two twin brothers named Romulus and Remus founded Rome, Italy's capital city. The myth says the twins were abandoned and then discovered by a she-wolf before being found and raised by a shepherd and his wife. Eventually (and after many exciting adventures), they found themselves at the location of Palatine Hill, where Romulus built "Roma." The Italian wolf became Italy's unofficial national animal. 
• In the 1930s and 40s, Mussolini, Italy's prime minister, and dictator tried to eliminate all foreign words from the Italian language. How did he do that? He just changed them! For example, in soccer, "goal" became "meta." Disney character names changed, too: Donald Duck became "Paperino;" Mickey Mouse became "Topolino;" and Goofy became "Pippo." Although they're not banned anymore, these words and names have stuck. So now if you go to the Italian Disneyland, called Gardaland Park, you will see Topolino and Pippo! 
• About 60 million people call Italy home, and it is 116,350 square miles, slightly larger than the US state of Arizona. If you compare that to the United Kingdom, 67 million people live there, and it is about 94,350 square miles. So, the UK is smaller than Italy but has a bigger population! 
• The Italian flag is green, white, and red. These colors represent hope, faith, and charity.
• The average Italian eats close to 55 pounds of pasta annually. If you think about how light pasta is, that is a considerable amount! There are more than 500 different types of pasta eaten in Italy today. 

What's It Like to Be a Kid in Italy?

• Kids begin school at 6 years old. They grow up speaking Italian, but they learn English in school, so many become bilingual in Italian and English.
• The most popular sport for kids is football (soccer). The Italian word for soccer is "calcio," the same word they use for "kick." A favorite of younger kids is "Rody, the bouncing horse," a plastic horse that a small child can hop onto and bounce around the room. Rody was invented in Italy in 1984.  
• The family ("la famiglia") is a central characteristic of Italian life. Children have great respect for their older relatives. It is traditional to name the first male child after the grandfather and the first female child after the grandmother.
• If kids live close to school, they can go home and have lunch with their families! Lunch at school might be pasta, meat with vegetables, a sandwich, or a salad with lots of ingredients. Families typically eat dinner later (7 to 8 pm), so kids end up staying up later, too!
• Between lunch and dinner, kids often enjoy "merenda," which is an afternoon snack that translates to "something that is deserved." It is really a mini-meal that can include both savory and sweet foods. Examples of savory foods are a salami or mortadella sandwich, a slice of rustic bread rubbed with a cut, raw tomato, or "pizza bianca" (white pizza without tomato sauce). Types of sweet foods eaten during merenda are "gelato" (a lower-fat type of ice cream), any kind of cake, or biscotti dipped in warm milk.