An Italian Potato Recipe: Baked Rosemary Potatoes 0
Spanish conquistadors “discovered” the potato in the Andes in the sixteenth century. The Incas prepared dishes out of these tubers that greatly appealed to the Spaniards. Since at first sight the invaders thought that these new vegetables growing underground were truffles, they called the new food taratoufli.
When we hear talking about Italian cuisine, potatoes are not mentioned very often. Yet, they have their own place in many traditional regional dishes, either as main course, like gnocchi or like in the form of a mashed potato recipe you probably found in other cuisines, or as side dishes, like potato salad or this classic potato recipe for rosemary potatoes (patate al rosmarino).
This is a classic recipe for the Sunday roast. Ingredients are for four people:
- 750 g / 1 lb 10 oz potatoes
- 3 garlic cloves
- 3 sprigs rosemary
- 75 ml / 2½ fl oz olive oil, plus extra for greasing
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
Wash and peel the potatoes and cut them into small cubes. Peel and roughly chop the garlic. Pluck the leaves from the rosemary and roughly chop them as well. Preheat the oven at 200°C / 390°F / gar mask 6. Grease a flat baking dish with olive oil.
Place a layer of potatoes on the base of the baking dish. Season with some of the garlic and rosemary, salt and pepper. Repeat this procedure until all the ingredients have been used. Drizzle the olive oil over the top and bake for about 45 minutes, tossing the potatoes several times. Serve in the baking dish while hot.
In a slightly different version of this recipe, after you have diced the potatoes, bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the potatoes, count fifteen minutes from when water resumes boiling, then drain the potatoes in a colander and lay them on a cloth until they have cooled down completely. At this stage bake them following the recipe. Baking time will be five or ten minutes shorter.
