Potato gateau: an incredible traditional recipe!

The recipe for potato gateau (or potato gattò) is incredibly simple. Get potatoes, eggs, cheeses, cold cuts and let’s do it together!

The Neapolitan potato gateau, although the name may be misleading, is a sort of baked potato timbale, but with a story to tell. The recipe is typically Neapolitan (where it is also known as potato gattò ), but over time it has been revisited a little in every Italian cuisine and especially in southern Italy so it shouldn’t seem strange to find those who say they know how to cook gateau to perfection of potatoes with the Neapolitan recipe.

The history of this dish, in fact, has its roots in 1700: the wife of the sovereign Ferdinand I of Bourbon loved the exquisite French cuisine to the point that her Neapolitan cooks often drew from it. Of course, the people soon wanted to try this tasty potato pie so loved by the Queen. Here, even today, every family hands down and keeps their own personalized recipe .

How to make potato gateau

1. Start by cooking the boiled potatoes: after washing and peeling them, dip them in boiling salted water. It will take from 20 to 40 minutes for them to be well cooked (the advice, if you have little time, is to cut them into small pieces to halve the time).
2. When they are nice and soft, drain and let them cool by passing them under frozen water , before mashing them with a potato masher. In a bowl, combine the puree, the eggs, the diced mozzarella, the salami into small pieces and the bacon that you have roasted separately.
3. Mix, then complete with the oil, grated cheese and salt and pepper to taste.
4. Transfer the mixture to a baking sheet, level it with your hands and add a sprinkling of grated cheese and breadcrumbs.
5. Bake (in a preheated oven) at 180 ° C for about 30 minutes .
6. Serve your potato pizza warm, with some aromatic herbs (such as thyme). Enjoy your meal !

Don’t feel like turning on the oven ? Try the pan-fried potato gateau : it’s ready in a flash !

Tips for preparation and variations

You can choose any variety of potatoes you have at home: we have chosen the yellow ones, with a more compact texture. If you use the white ones, which are more floury, they will tend to flake off a little more during cooking.

If the consistency does not seem right before cooking in the oven, add a little milk or breadcrumbs.

Cooking the potato gateau is very important. Put it in the oven when it has already reached temperature and pay attention to the positioning. In fact, you must place it in the pan in the middle of the appliance so that a crust can form on the surface without risking burning it. When there are about 7-10 minutes until the end of cooking, then activate the grill mode for a perfect result and a simple, but mouth-watering potato gateau.

As for cured meats and cold cuts with which to enrich it, however, it all depends on you: you can stick to the classic recipe, or even make a vegetarian potato gateau, that is without cured meats, but with only cheese. The beauty of this recipe, in fact, is its versatility: it is the “empty fridge” dish par excellence. In short, put everything you want in it! You can then also transform this single dish into a veg recipe. Replace cow’s milk cheese with soy cheese or tofu.

Of course, you can also try the vegan version of the potato gateau without eggs (nor cheese and salami) – delicious and surprising – and all our recipes with potatoes !

storage

You can keep the raw dish for about 2 days in the refrigerator, well covered with cling film. When cooked, it must always be kept in the fridge for a maximum of 2-3 days . We do not recommend freezing in the freezer.