Potatoes are born about 8000 years ago in South America. At that time it was thought that these pale yellow and fairly neutral flavor tubers, were excellent natural remedies against certain types of skin irritations: the tuber infact was rubbed in the affected parts by irritation to try to alleviate the discomfort immediately (this practice is also used today for sunburn as a home remedy).
A few centuries later, were the Spaniards who brought the potato to Europe and from there it spread its use in European territory but not only.
Potatoes are still the basic nutrition element of many poor people, and not, in the world given its high carbohydrate loading and its very low cost. They are so rich in starch, which are ranked as the fourth most important food crop in the world, after maize, wheat and rice.
But do you know how they came chips? By mistake. Indeed.
George Crum was an American chef with Indian origin. One day, while serving a plate of fries to a customer, he got the dish back three times by the unhappy customer. So, the chef decided to cut the potatoes into very thin slices, fry them and salt them a lot so that the customer wasn’t able to eat them with a fork anymore. But, with great surprise, the customer appreciated them so much that since that day, chips were served into the restaurant as a main dish, everyday.
There are millions of potatoe’s recipes out there, but I like to write you a recipe that you can do if you have any leftover boiled potatoes.
Ingredients (for a silicone cake mold, 21 cm):
5 medium / large potatoes, already boiled and cooled
6 eggs
1 small bunch fresh basil
2 pinches of salt
1 pinch of pepper
1 pinch of nutmeg
250 g of cow or buffalo mozzarella
Preparation:
– Cut the mozzarella into cubes and set aside.
– Chop the basil breaking it with your hands and not with a knife, otherwise it will assume a dark colour, not so yummy.
– In a bowl, whisk the 6 eggs with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
– Cut the potatoes into 4 thick slices and cut each slice into 6 cubes.
-An now you are ready to compose your frittatorta! Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and then pour the mixture into the cake mould. If you use a silicone one, you won’t have to grease it. If you use a normal one, line it with a little bit of wet and well squeezed baking paper.
-Bake at 190 degrees for about half an hour. To figure out if it is cooked, use the same method you use for pies: place a toothpick in the center of your frittatorta and if it came out clean, it mean it’s ready. Another way to figure out if it is cooked is to shake the pan a little to see if the center of frittatorta is still soft or not. If not moving, then it means that also the central part is cooked. And you’re ready to eat.
Potatoes are born about 8000 years ago in South America. At that time it was thought that these pale yellow and fairly neutral flavor tubers, were excellent natural remedies against certain types of skin irritations: the tuber infact was rubbed in the affected parts by irritation to try to alleviate the discomfort immediately (this practice is also used today for sunburn as a home remedy).
