Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [246]
Pan-Roasted Diced Potatoes
THE IDEAL ROAST potato has a thin, crackly crust sheathing an interior of the most yielding tenderness. Dicing the potatoes smaller than bite-size, as in this recipe, speeds up the process and multiplies the benefits by producing from each potato many soft centers, each with its perfectly crisp crust.
For 4 to 6 servings
1½ pounds round, waxy, boiling potatoes
Vegetable oil
Salt
1. Peel the potatoes, dice them into ½-inch cubes, wash them in two changes of cold water, and pat them dry with a cloth towel.
2. Choose a skillet that can accommodate all the potatoes fairly loosely, pour in enough oil to come ½ inch up its sides, and turn on the heat to medium high. As soon as the oil becomes hot enough to sizzle when you drop in a single potato dice, put in all the diced potatoes. Turn the heat down to medium and cook at a moderate pace until the potatoes feel tender when prodded with a fork, but are still pale, not having yet formed a crust. Take the pan off heat, remove the potatoes from the pan, using a slotted spoon or spatula, and allow them to cool completely. Do not empty out the oil from the pan.
3. When you are nearly ready to serve, put the skillet with the oil over high heat, and when the oil is very hot, put the potatoes back in. Cook them until they form a light nut-brown crust on all sides, sprinkle with salt, transfer to a warm platter with a slotted spoon or spatula, and serve at once.
Ahead-of-time note You can prepare the potatoes up to this point an hour or two in advance.
Baked Potatoes, Onion, and Tomatoes, Apulian Style
For 6 servings
2 pounds potatoes
2 cups onion sliced very thin
1 pound fresh, ripe, firm tomatoes, skinned raw with a peeler, all seeds removed, and cut into small dice
¾ cup freshly grated romano cheese
Oregano, 1½ teaspoons if fresh, ¾ teaspoon if dried
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
An oven-to-table baking dish, 13 by 9 inches, or one of comparable size
1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Peel the potatoes, wash them in cold water, and cut them into slices no thicker than ¼ inch.
3. Put the potatoes in a bowl together with the onion, tomato, grated cheese, oregano, salt, pepper, and ½ cup water. Toss several times to mix the ingredients well.
4. Use about 1 tablespoon of olive oil to smear the baking dish. Turn out the entire contents of the bowl into the dish, and level off. Pour in the remaining olive oil.
5. Place the dish on the uppermost rack of the preheated oven and bake for about 1 hour, until the potatoes feel very tender when prodded with a fork. Turn the potatoes over every 20 minutes or so. After taking the dish out of the oven, let it settle for about 10 minutes before bringing to the table. The potatoes should be served warm, but not scalding hot.
Sliced Potatoes Baked with Porcini and Fresh Cultivated Mushrooms, Riviera Style
For 4 servings
A small packet OR 1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms, reconstituted
The filtered water from the mushroom soak
1 pound small, new, waxy, boiling potatoes
½ pound fresh, firm, white button OR cremini mushrooms
An oven-to-table baking dish, no larger than 11 inches by 7 inches or its equivalent
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons garlic chopped very fine
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
Salt
1. Put the reconstituted mushrooms and their filtered water into a small saucepan, turn on the heat to medium high, and cook until all the liquid has boiled away. Set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 400°.
3. Peel the potatoes, or if very new rub their skins off, wash them in cold water, and cut them into ¼-inch slices.
4. Slice off and discard a thin disk from the butt end of the fresh mushrooms’ stem without detaching the stem from the cap. Wash the mushrooms rapidly in cold running water, taking care not to let them soak. Pat gently, but thoroughly dry with a soft cloth towel. Cut them lengthwise into slices the same thickness as the potatoes, keeping stems and caps together.
5. Choose a baking