Pizza di Patate Barese

Pizza di patate is a classic Pugliese dish (ok, technically from Bari. Whatever) and goes by other names in other places - potato gateau, potato crumble, etc. Basically, think of it as "baked mashed potatoes", which is exactly like calling wine "fermented grape juice". True, but entirely missing the point.

The recipe below comes from a friend of mine from Puglia. OK, technically, it's her mom's, which only makes it even better, right?

(Incidentally, if you want to learn - or improve - your Italian, you can do far, far worse than working with her. The site is called LearnAmo, she's incredibly good at it, and the videos are endlessly entertaining.)

Anyhow, enough of the plug - recipe below.

Ingredients

• 4 medium potatoes (russet, but pretty much anything will do)
• 2 eggs
• 8 oz mozzarella di bufala, diced. Not too small though. Perhaps 1/4" - 1/2" chunks
• 8 oz shredded cheese (use whatever you like. Mozzarella, cheddar, "fiesta cheese", it's all good stuff!)
• A loaf of plain old bread
• Chopped up Mortadella (preferable. If you can't get any, prosciutto will do!)
• Milk
• Breadcrumbs (panko is best!)
• Grated Nutmeg
• Pepper
• Salt
• (Optional) chopped basil or parsley

Bring a pan of water to boil (with salt!). Dice the potatoes, and add to the pan.  Let it boil till the potatoes are done - around 10-15 minutes. The smaller the dice, the faster they'll cook.

In the meantime, heat up your oven to 400°F.

Drain the potatoes, and add to a bowl. Mash them up with a fork. Taste, and add salt if necessary. Remember, the water was already salted, so be sure to taste first!

Add in the shredded cheese, as much pepper as you want (from a dash to "I Love Pepper And Must Add ALL THE PEPPER") grated nutmeg (lots! Makes all the difference!), and mix till it's all amalgamated into a nice homogenous mess.

Add in the chopped mortadella, and if you feel like it, the chopped basil / parsley, and mix it all up.  At this stage, taste to make sure that you got the proportions right, and add in more salt, pepper, basil, or whatever you feel like to make sure that it's All Good.

If it starts stiffening up - you'll know, 'cos if you have to put some nelly in it to mix it up, it's too stiff - add a touch of milk to keep it creamy.

Note that this is also the stage at which you're likely to drop the idea, and just have mashed potatoes for dinner.  You've been warned 🙄

Mix in the eggs.

Now mix in the mozzarella di bufala, but oh so carefully, so that the chunks are vaguely whole.  You'll fail, but try!

Take a pizza pan, and coat it in oil. 

Yes, the side you're cooking on, not both the sides. And yes, I was actually asked this question once.

Rip out the insides from the loaf of bread, into small chunklets, like so, and place on the pizza pan.  If you feel particularly evil, drizzle some more olive oil on the whole thing.  Not too much though - trust me, the whole thing is a calory-bomb anyhow.

Now, layer the mashed potatoes on top of this carefully, and smooth down till the whole things is about 1"-2" thick.  Carefully - do not mush it down - you want the end result to at least pretend to be light.

And yes, 1"-2" is quite the variation, but it doesn't really matter. I got the proportions wrong, and ended up making the whole thing as a loaf instead of as a pizza.  Still tasted awesome!!!

Drizzle the top with the breadcrumbs, and place in the heated oven. Leave it in for around 15-20 minutes, by which time the top should be oh-so-golden.

Remove from the oven, let stand for 10 minutes, slice, and serve.

The whole dish is paradoxically light and dense - light in texture, and calorically potent. I was fully after one slice, and yet, ended up eating 2 more 😜.

Incidentally, given the richness of the dish, you want to pair this with something to cut the fat - sparkling wine, a beer, chilled dry sake, or some such!