Our famous Montasio cheese and associated recipes, such as Frico, were the usual food of my favourite cartoon character...

Have you ever seen the scene in a film with a piled-up plate, and almost smelt the aroma, tasting it in your mouth? I have! Over time, my unconscious has re-elaborated the taste of the spaghetti with meatballs in “Lady and the tramp”, and everywhere I seem to smell the beans cooked by Bud Spencer and likewise the buttery and round taste, smelling of fresh milk straight out of the cow, and the cheese that Heidi ate every day, the famous Montasio.

I imagine her running around the Altipiano del Montasio (a high meadow on Montasio mountain and the place that gave its name to the “sacred” cheese first made around 1200 in a monastery in Moggio Udinese. I see her climbing up to the Brazza mountain hut, winking at the cows that graze freely when the malghe (alpine dairies) are opened for the summer.

Heidi is agile, and climbs up to Jôf di Montasio, a high mountain with a challenging trail that offers you the incomparable beauty of the landscape in reward for the effort. I see her fixing an appointment with Peter on the many CAI (Italian Alpine Club trails), running free and taking refreshment on the Montasio.

Montasio cheese, excellent in its various aged varieties, appropriately dosed with the addition of potatoes and onions, is the basis for the most typical Friulian dish: frico, in a friable or soft version. Every hut, inn, restaurant and family has its own recipe for it.

Famous too are the many village festivals and feast days where you can enjoy dancing, song and our typical dish. One that comes to mind is the Sagra del frico di Carpacco, held in the middle of August, and it is worth recalling the world’s longest frico, a record still held by Cividale del Friuli.

Since it is not a very widespread cheese in Italy and abroad, I recommend you visit us here, for the joy of the palate, of the spirit, the eyes and to share a treasure.