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Carluccio's Complete Italian Food

By Antonio Carluccio and Priscilla Carluccio

Published 1997

  • About
Although fulfilling the same role in northern Europe as bread in southern Europe, the potato has never been part of the staple diet in Italy. Indeed it was only in the middle of the nineteenth century that the potato started to be widely used as a vegetable in Italy. Originally from South America, the potato is mostly cultivated in the Veneto, Puglia, Campania and Calabria, where the soil is particularly well-suited to them.

Early potatoes, usually known as patate novelle (new potatoes), are small, firm and waxy and ideal in potato salads, where cooked potatoes are dressed with olive oil, vinegar, spring onions, salt and pepper. Of the many varieties available, the most important are the floury winter potatoes such as Tonda di Napoli and Bianca di Como, the white flesh of which is used to make purées, gnocchi, croquettes and toppings for savoury pies. They can also be baked whole with their skins on, cut into cubes or sliced with onions. They make a useful thickener for soups such as minestrone and a tasty accompaniment to pasta in pasta e patate. Potatoes are probably most popular fried in matchsticks or thin slices called patatine (crisps). Those with a firmer more waxy yellow flesh, such as Primura and Sirtema, are ideal for making chips or sautéed potatoes. There is a potato called the Bintje which has been developed in Holland and can be used for every sort of dish.

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