Freak out for Frico!

Ah, that’s a cheeky little blog name, now isn’t it?  I amuse myself sometimes.

What is frico?  If you don’t know, I’m very sorry.  Because it is something everyone should know about.  Frico is what results when you bake parmesan cheese (real parmesan cheese, not the powder stuff) into insanely good crisps.  You know when you make grilled cheese and that little bit of cheese oozes out the side and gets all brown and crispy in the skillet?  You know how that’s almost better than the grilled cheese itself?  Yeah, that’s what frico is like.

Give it a try; it’s so easy!  It’s great with salad and really impressive for guests!

Frico – Baked Parmesan Crisps

Ingredients:

• Shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For this, you’ll need a cookie sheet covered with either a silicon baking sheet (like Silpat) or parchment paper.  Lay the parmesan cheese in small piles, making sure it’s spread out evenly and not piled up in the middle.  Bake 6-8 minutes, until cheese is melted and just barely starts to turn color.  Don’t let it get too brown or it will taste burned and bitter.

When the crisps are done baking, take them off the sheet and lay them flat on a paper towel.

OR you can be fancy and drape them over a rolling pin or bottle of wine, and they will harden in a pretty shape.  Careful – they’re kind of delicate!

OR, OR you can be super fancy and drape them over the back sides of small glass bowls (you’d need to make them a little bigger for this) and serve your salads INSIDE them!  Just blew your mind, didn’t I?  Maybe I’ll do this sometime soon and post pics.

I hope you have as much fun with this as I did!