A cheese born of thrift in the high valleys of Carnia, made by reworking sound but blemished wheels of semi-cooked Latteria rather than wasting them — wheels that had swollen or split in the rind and could not be aged whole. Younger wheels are diced and older ones grated, then kneaded together by hand with milk, cream, salt and pepper; 'frant' is Friulian for 'crumbled'. Repacked into moulds and rested about 40 days in a cool cellar, it sets into a firm, spreadable cheese of marked sweet-and-sharp taste that changes from house to house with the ages of the wheels and the cream added. Once a purely domestic product never meant for sale, it survives as a Slow Food Presidium and a regional PAT, eaten on the board with fruit preserves or melted into polenta and risotto.
Formadi frant leaves almost no paper trail: because it was a household product, elderly Carnic dairy folk remember making it but nothing was ever printed. 'Formadi' is Friulian for cheese and 'frant' means crumbled, naming the method exactly — the recovery of malga wheels gone swollen or cracked that could not be aged whole. Rooted in the isolation and poverty of Carnia's alpine valleys, where nothing edible could be wasted, it was a thrift cheese for the family table, differing from house to house and hamlet to hamlet. Slow Food later raised a Presidium to protect it, tying the name to raw-milk cheeses from Carnic mountain-pasture (alpeggio) production and defending it from pasteurised imitations; the Presidium is backed by Cirmont, the Comunità Montana della Carnia and the Banca di Cividale, and the cheese also carries the region's PAT status.
Firm but yielding and just spreadable, the dark-yellow paste eats sweet and rounded from the cream at first, then turns sharp and peppery on the finish, with the graininess of the older grated cheese still detectable. No two wheels taste alike.
Reworking already-made cheese is a second, controlled ripening. Grating the over-seven-month wheels and dicing the younger ones blends their proteolytic and lipolytic enzymes and their surface and internal microflora into one mass; the added whole milk and surface cream restore moisture and milk-fat and feed the flora with fresh lactose. Because the base cheeses are raw-milk, their native bacteria and enzymes survive to keep working. Salt lowers water activity to steer which microbes thrive and to firm the paste, while hand-kneading distributes salt, fat and flora evenly and knits the crumbs into a continuous body. Over about 40 days at 10 °C and 70% humidity, continued proteolysis breaks proteins into amino acids and peptides that deepen savour and the characteristic sharpness, while lipolysis releases free fatty acids for the peppery pungency; the cream rounds and softens the whole, balancing the sharp edge of the aged cheese.
Variations
The taste changes from maker to maker with the ages of the wheels used and how much cream is worked in, so no two batches match; some producers knead in a little grappa or local herbs. It is served young on cheese boards with sweet fruit preserves and mostarda, or melted into polenta, risotto and gnocchi as a sharp seasoning cheese. It should not be confused with ordinary Latteria, the semi-cooked cow's-milk cheese that is its raw material.
On the Palate
Where Formadi frant sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 10How it's made
8 steps · 30 min
- 130 min
Select sound wheels of Carnic raw-milk semi-cooked Latteria at a range of ages, including healthy wheels rejected from whole-wheel aging for swelling or a cracked rind; pare away any spoiled surface.
- 240 min
Dice or thinly slice the younger wheels, aged about 40 to 100 days, into small pieces, and grate the wheels aged over seven months to a coarse crumb.
- 315 min
Combine the cut and grated cheeses in a large bowl and work in whole milk by hand until evenly moistened.
Watch outWork in the whole milk by hand until every crumb is evenly moistened — dry pockets won't knit, and the reworked paste needs to bind into one mass.
- 420 min
Season generously with fine salt and freshly cracked black pepper, kneading into a rough, cohesive paste.
- 515 min
Add fresh surface cream a little at a time, kneading continuously, until the paste is homogeneous, softer and rounded.
- 62160 min
Pack the paste firmly into cheese moulds, pressing out air pockets, and let it rest one to two days to knit together.
- 757600 min
Turn out and age in a natural cellar at about 10 °C and 70% humidity for at least 40 days, until the flavours marry into the characteristic sweet-and-sharp contrast.
Watch outAge at about 10°C and 70% humidity for at least 40 days — that's the window where the sweet-and-sharp contrast comes together; rush it and it tastes flat.
- 810 min
Serve at room temperature, sliced or spread from the crock, on a board with fruit preserves, or melted into polenta, risotto and gnocchi.
