This recipe is worth repeating. It’s one of my favorites when it gets cold, I crave something warm and I don’t feel like doing much.
One of my favorite pizza makers in San Francisco used to make this recipe for potatoes and named it Potato Pizzaiola.
4 pounds of large red potatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
14 ounce can Italian peeled tomatoes, drained and chopped
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1-1/2 teaspoons salt & ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Preheat oven to 350, brush shallow baking dish (I use 11 x 7) with 1 teaspoon olive oil
Cook potatoes in boiling salted water for 10 minutes only. Drain, remove skins and cut into ½ inch slices. Place 1/3 of potatoes in a baking dish, overlapping slightly. Use 1/3 each of the garlic, oregano, tomatoes, remaining olive oil and season potatoes. Repeat twice. Bake for 40 minutes or until the potatoes are tender when tested with a knife and lightly browned and bubbly.
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Someone asked me if I have any cooking secrets. Not really, most cooking hacks are well known since the days of the internet and the food network. But some of my most used ones are.
1. Using a cheese grater to strip leaves off of fresh herbs. Just pull them through the appropriate hole size and voila, leaves on one side and stems on the other.
2. Having a package of potato flakes (or instant mashed) handy. Adding some to a thin sauce, soup or stew makes a great thickener, instead of using cornstarch or flour.
3. Putting a damp kitchen towel under the cutting board keeps it from sliding.
4. When chopping garlic, put a small amount of salt down on the board before chopping, it keeps the garlic from moving about.
5. When washing mushrooms, I toss them in a plastic bag with some salt, water and shake vigorously. Rinse, drain in colander. It’s been proven that mushrooms don’t really absorb much water and it’s a real pain to clean each one.
Of course if you are using the above methods with salt, you won’t need to add much to your recipe.
