Wednesday 7 January 2009

Cheese-smothered potatoes - reworked!


Okay, so I wasn't too keen on the sound of Nigel's Cheese-smothered potatoes, which seemed rather too much like the 'cheesy chips' dished up at our local pub. So, I followed the recipe but turned it into a fritatta by adding eggs for our tea tonight.

You start off by gently sauteeing thinly sliced potatoes and onion in some olive oil and a small knob of butter - not too much, as we don't want it too greasy. Add a couple of cloves of garlic, crushed and some thyme and salt and pepper. When all is soft and tinged here and there with bits of gold, pour over 3 eggs (this is for 2 people) and stud the top with about 75g of Taleggio or Fontina cheese. Cook over a gentle heat until the egg is more or less set and then finish off under a hot grill. The cheese turns into molten pools of fondue buried in the egg. Delicious. A bit like a Spanish tortilla but more Italian because of the cheese, hence I've called it a fritatta.

We started with Tuscan bean soup - basically a sofrito of celery, onion and carrot with some chopped pancetta, garlic, and rosemary (pinched from a neighbour's bush on the way home - sorry Julia!). Add a tin of drained, rinsed borlotti beans and a carton of passatta. Pour over a pint of Marigold stock, season well and cook for 20 minutes or so. Ladle out half the soup and blend until smooth, then return to the rest of the soup. Finish with lots of parsley.

We're quite full now!

2 comments:

  1. ooh, Maggie, you are being conscientious! I haven't even started yet, and probably won't before next week as I'm away this weekend.

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  2. LOL! It is quite a tyranny, you know! 191 recipes seemed achievable last week. I have now cooked 7, after tonight's efforts, and it seems like a long, long hill to climb. The food has been great though, and oddly enough we are saving money, as we have leftovers that we are eating for lunch each day. I hadn't appreciated how little dairy and meat Nigel uses either, which is another bonus for our health!

    Maggie

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