Gatto di patate alla napoletana

In the eighteenth century, noble families in Naples and Sicily hired French chefs to cook for their families and impress their friends. These chefs were called monzù, a corruption of the French word monsieur. One of their creations was the gatto di patate, which is essentially a tortino. Gatto in this instance does not mean “cat,” however, but is instead yet another corruption, this time for the French word gâteau, or “cake.”