Frit Mallorquí

A Mallorcan fry-up of lamb offal with potato, pepper, and onion, defined by the anise scent of wild fennel. The pluck — heart, liver, and lights — is diced small and fried in olive oil, while potato, red pepper, and onion are fried separately, then everything is combined to mingle. Garlic and a generous handful of fennel fronds and stems season it. It is a dish of the matances and of Easter, eaten as a hearty main from a single pan.

Frit Mallorquí is a nose-to-tail dish born of thrift: it used up the perishable innards on slaughter day, the matances, before refrigeration. Wild fennel — fonoll on the island — grows freely on Mallorca and is the herb that marks the dish out from any other offal fry. The version made with pork and pork liver at the autumn pig slaughter is called frit de matances, while the lamb version is strongly tied to Easter; a fish-based frit de pop made with octopus also exists. Its exact origin is unrecorded.

The offal fries up tender and faintly mineral — liver soft and rich, heart with a little chew — against soft, oil-slicked potato and sweet collapsed pepper and onion. The defining note is the clean anise lift of wild fennel cutting through the richness of the innards. Well made it is moist and savoury, not dry; the pieces are small so each forkful carries meat, vegetable, and herb together. Hearty and rustic rather than refined.

Like tumbet, the technique is in frying the parts apart. Offal, potato, pepper, and onion all cook at different speeds and have different moistures, so they are fried separately and only married at the end; this keeps the liver from going hard while the potato finishes soft. The offal is cooked hot and fast to brown the outside and set the texture before it dries. The fennel goes in toward the end so its volatile anise oils perfume the dish rather than cooking away, and garlic is bloomed in the oil for a savoury base.

Variations

Frit de matances uses pork and pork liver from the autumn slaughter; the spring lamb version is the Easter classic. Some cooks add a little blood or sobrassada, fresh peas or artichoke in season, or a dried red pepper for colour. A seafood frit de pop swaps the offal for octopus. Across the Balearics similar fries appear, but the constant marker on Mallorca is the wild fennel.

On the Palate

Where Frit Mallorquí sits in the Spanish flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 4

How it's made

6 steps · 45 min

1
12 min
Trim and dice the lamb pluck — heart, liver, and lights — into small, even pieces.
2
10 min
Fry the offal in hot olive oil in batches until browned outside and just set, then set aside.
Watch out
Fry the offal hot and fast to brown the outside and just set it — cook it slow and the liver goes hard and dry.
3
12 min
Fry diced potato, red pepper, and onion separately in oil until soft, adding sliced garlic.
4
4 min
Combine the offal and vegetables in the pan and toss together over the heat to mingle the flavours.
5
4 min
Add chopped wild fennel fronds and stems near the end and season with salt and pepper.
Watch out
Add the wild fennel only near the end — its anise oils perfume the dish if added late, but cook away if they go in early.
6
3 min
Toss once more so the fennel perfumes the dish, and serve hot from the pan.

Archive tool suggestions — not reviewed

These legacy suggestions have not been evidence-reviewed and are not presented as required tools.

Cast-Iron Skillet

A heavy, single-piece cast iron pan, 25-30 cm across, weighing 1.5-2.5 kg. Once preheated, the thick mass holds 230°C+ even when a cold steak hits the surface — that's the secret to a deep crust. A well-seasoned skillet (multiple thin layers of polymerized oil baked into the iron) is essentially nonstick, gets better with use, and lasts a century. Lodge skillets from Tennessee have been in continuous production since 1896.

Techniques

Sauteing