Tag: Neapolitan

Gateau of potatoes: recipe of the Neapolitan potato gattò – Italian Cuisine

The potato gateau, better known in Naples as potato gattò (or even gatò), is a delicacy from ancient history. Let's find out how it was born and how to prepare it

The potato gateauor rather, the Neapolitan potato cat, it can be defined as a real savory pie with a stringy heart and a crispy gratin crust. It can do by single dish, but also from side dish or appetizer: in any case, it will make you lick your mustache. But what is its history and how is potato getaeu prepared?

Let's jump in 1700 and try the traditional potato gateau recipe.

From gateau to gattò: the history of potato gattò

His first appearance on the Neapolitan scene dates back to 1768, when the queen Maria Carolina of Habsburg, wife of Ferdinand I of Bourbon, called the French cooks in Kingdom of Naples to be able to enjoy their delicacies. The so-called monsieurs, professional chefs from France, were nicknamed monzù. Similarly, the Neapolitans took the gateau (which in French means really cake) and turned it into cat: the French potato pie that originally contained a stringy gruyere heart, was instead stuffed with milk cream is Neapolitan salami or baked ham (or both together).

Gateau of potatoes: recipe of the Neapolitan potato gattò

How is potato gateau made? Here is a recipe for gattò, just like you do in Naples, and some variations of preparation.

Ingredients

1 kg potatoes
300 g mozzarella
150 g Neapolitan salami
50 g grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
butter
milk
breadcrumbs
salt
pepper

Method

To prepare the potato gateau, first boil the potatoes in boiling water with the whole peelin this way they will not absorb too much water. Furthermore, once ready, it will be very easy to peel them.
Pass the boiled and peeled potatoes in the potato masher and collect them in a bowl.

Add a few tablespoons of milk to make the dough more creamy and add the eggs, parmesan, salt, pepper. Start mixing all the ingredients, add the diced salami and mozzarella and continue stirring until a compact mixture is obtained.

Butter a baking mold and sprinkle abundantly with breadcrumbs. Pour the mixture into the mold, level it and sprinkle the surface with other breadcrumbs, parmesan and a few flakes of butter.

Bake at 180 ° C in a preheated oven for about 30 minutes, until it is ready well gratinated. Remove from the oven and serve it still hot!

Gateau of potatoes: advice

The potato gattò has many different recipes that have been handed down in every family: you can change the recipe of the potato gateau according to your taste and fill it with any salami or cheese you have in the refrigerator. Campania is certainly the most popular headcheese Neapolitan, the scamorza and the smoked provola, for a stronger flavor.

Which potatoes to use to make the perfect potato cat? The advice is to use old potatoes yellow paste to minimize the presence of starch. If the potatoes turn out too much mealy, you can add more milk to the mixture, but there are also those who enrich it with abundant butter.

potato gateau original recipe

Among the "theories" on the perfect potato gattò, there is also the one concerningassembly. Some mix all the ingredients together, distributing cheese and salami evenly. Others prefer to proceed layered: half of the dough is poured on the bottom of the pan and well leveled, then a central layer is created with the mozzarella, salami or cooked ham (and sometimes even the hard-boiled eggs), finally the last with the last layer of potatoes. The filling will therefore be found only one hundred.

the recipe of the Neapolitan zeppola – Italian Cuisine

Sweet, fried, soft. The irresistible zeppole with potatoes, typical of Neapolitan pastry, are easy to make at home with this recipe.

The napoletan zeppole, also called braces, they are a typical fried dessert of the Campania pastry shop: soft donuts prepared with a leavened potato dough, fried and covered with granulated sugar. Similar to krapfen, but with a hole, Neapolitan fried zeppole can be found in bars and pastry shops in Campania throughout the year, but Carnival is one of the most loved moments to prepare them at home with your own hands. Here is ours recipe to prepare zeppole with soft potatoes.

The recipe for zeppole with potatoes

Ingredients for 10 people

1 kg Manitoba flour
450 g Potatoes
300 g Eggs
150 g caster sugar
100 ml Milk
80 g Butter
25 g Brewer's yeast
5 g Salt
Caster sugar to taste

Method

First boil the potatoes in boiling water until they are cooked, let them cool and remove the peel. Mash them with a potato masher.

Place the flour on the work surface and add the eggs, baking powder, sugar, softened butter and mashed potatoes to the center. Knead the dough (by hand or with the mixer) slowly adding the milk and mix all the ingredients well until the dough becomes smooth.

Add the salt and knead for another 10 minutes. Let the dough rise for about 30 minutes at room temperature. It is important that the leavened occurs at a constant temperature, between 28-30 ° C, without changes or currents.

Cut the dough into pieces, create dough loaves and create the typical donut shape. Let rise again on a flour-covered surface, for about two hours, until the dough doubles in volume.

Fry for about two minutes, in abundant boiling seed oil, turning them on both sides. It's important to fry a few wedges at a time: wait for the first side to be slightly golden and then proceed with the second. Drain them on paper towels and dry them in excess oil, without crushing them, and immediately put them in a tray with the sugar to cover them. Serve hot!

Fried potato zeppole: three tips

The first tip concerns the dough: that of our recipe is a basic dough, but it can also be enriched with aromas, as the vanilla or a liqueur, for example del limoncello. And why not perfume it with lemon peel or grated orange?

Once the dough is ready, you can proceed by creating the shape of the zeppole directly by hand. But if you want to get one more precise form, roll out the dough until it is 1 cm thick, use a coppapasta to obtain dough circles and, with the help of the thumb, pierce the center to obtain the typical shape.

Finally, to give an extra gear, you can coat the fried zeppole with granulated sugar mixed with cinnamon. For the sweet tooth it will be impossible to resist one filling with chocolate cream, to hazelnut or al lemon. Transfer the cream to a small smooth-sided pastry bag and fill the zeppole with holes.

Typical Neapolitan Carnival sweets – Italian Cuisine

The name already says it, Shrove Tuesday it is made for sinning. And in the kitchen there is a very specific way to sin seriously: frying, of course! If every fried is worth, among the most loved there are certainly those from Campania. What are the most delicious typical Neapolitan Carnival desserts? Let's see them together.

Neapolitan chatter

The history of small talk goes back toancient Rome: during the celebration of the Saturnalia, all the social canons were overturned and among the excesses there were precisely frictilia, desserts fried in pork fat, distributed to the people on the streets of the city.

Today the chatter is known throughout Italy, with different versions and many names (lies, galani, rags or frappe), but the Neapolitan version remains the most famous. According to the Neapolitan tradition, their birth is due to the Queen Margherita of Savoy (already responsible for the invention of pizza margherita), so greedy and chatty that he ordered his chef to create a suitable dessert to accompany his conversations with friends. To prepare them, read our recipe here.

black pudding

It's not really Carnival until the chatter is drenched in black pudding. It is an ancient recipe from poor kitchen bell, also widespread in other regions, such as Basilicata and Calabria. When they say "The pig does not throw anything away", no joking: traditionally, after killing pigs in January and February, their pigs blood it was collected, combined with cocoa and then with sugar and spices. There black pudding recipe today it no longer provides for pig blood, since this practice has been prohibited since 1992.

Ingredients

500 ml Milk
200 g sugar
80 g Bitter cocoa
120 g Dark chocolate
50 g Corn starch
30 g Butter
50 g Cedar or candied raisins
Cinnamon to taste

Method

In a bowl mix sugar, flour, cocoa, cinnamon and corn starch and add the milk flush, mixing carefully with a whisk to avoid lumps. When the mixture is homogeneous, transfer it to a pot and add the dark chocolate into pieces, the butter and the candied fruit and cook over low heat until it thickens. Once you have obtained a compact and shiny cream, pour the black pudding into an ovenproof dish, cover it with plastic wrap and let it cool to room temperature.

Migliaccio

Another typical Carnival dessert of Naples is the Milleccio, a millet and ricotta cake that is often prepared also on the occasion of Easter. This is another recipe for traditional poor cuisine, as it included millet, now replaced with semolina, and pork blood (a custom that has now disappeared). Read the recipe here.

staples

The staple is a very sinful fried dessert that can be found in Campania in bars and pastry shops all year round. Carnival is one of the best occasions to prepare them even at home!

Ingredients

1 kg Manitoba flour
450 g Boiled potatoes
300 g Whole eggs
150 g sugar
100 ml Milk
80 g Butter
25 g Brewer's yeast
5 g Salt
Cinnamon to taste
Sugar to taste

Method

Mix all the ingredients except the salt in the mixer, until the dough reaches a smooth structure and does not come off the sides. Add the salt and knead for another 10 minutes. Let the dough rise for about 30 minutes at room temperature. Roll out the dough with a thickness of 1 cm, cut out the necessary size and, with the help of your thumb, pierce the center to obtain the typical shape. Leave to rise until the dough doubles in volume. Fry in lard or in hot seed oil. Drain and pass in the sugar and cinnamon.