Neapolitan proverb: “Four things make you happy: woman, money, sleep and food”
ingredienti per 4 porzioni (costo circa 5 € ap)
- Sale
- 900 g potatoes
- 200 g Italian mozzarella in brine
- 100 ml di latte
- 80 g parmigiano or grana cheese
- 100 g prosciutto crudo or cotto
- 3 eggs
- Olio d´ oliva EV
- 200 g di funghi porcini freschi
- 40 g bread crumbs
- Pepe rosa
- Fresh basil
One of the most typical Neapolitan dishes is the gattó di patate, the “potato cake”, a very simple dish made in aim to enrich the starchy and monotonous boiled potato.
To make the potato cake, which, of course, is not sweet but ……. savory, we first boil the potatoes in plenty of salted water.
The potatoes should be boiled well with their skins and then dissolved in purée. In this dish the homogenity of the purée does not matter (as in gnocchi or soufflé, for example), so we do not have to pass the potatoes through the chinois. Actually, I think that if we just smash the potatoes with a ladle the gattó will come out even better.
When the potatoes are done, we turn them into a puree and we preheat the oven to 190o C.
While the puree is still hot, we add the oil, 60 g of the parmesan, the beaten eggs, the milk, as well as a little salt, if we find the mass untasteful. We stir until the mixture turns relatively homogenous, being careful not to over-do with stirring in order to avoid that our gattó becomes chewy.
We grease a baking sheet and we add some ground bread crumbs to prevent the purée from sticking.
We pour half the amount of the purée on the sheet, then the mozzarella in slices and the prosciutto and finally the rest of the purée, garnishing the top of the gattó with the bread crumbs and the parmesan.
We put the gattó in the oven and we let it bake for about 35 mins.
Meanwhile, we sauté the porcini mushrooms (not salting them in advance, but only when are almost done) till tender. If the mushrooms are small, we let them whole, otherwise we cut them in pieces.
When the gattó is ready, we wait for a while, until it cools down and then we cut 4 round pieces with the appropriate ring.
We put in plate, adding on top the porcini mushrooms, some basil leaves and rose pepper.
