“Spaghetti and Potatoes” recipe – Spaghetti con le patate

Instructions

• 1.

  Putting the water to boil, grating the cheese and crushing the pepper

  • Fresh water - 5lt
  • Black pepper corns - 5gr
  • Parmigiano cheese - 120gr

  Put the saucepan with 5lt of water over a high heat. You will salt the water later (step 1 - pic.A).
  Finely crush the black pepper corns with pestle and mortar. Then, grate the Pecorino Romano cheese. Set aside (step 1 - pic.B).
  

  Note about salt and water for pasta

  If you think you might forget to salt water before adding pasta, you can salt water right after putting it on heat. This can become a safe routine, but the commonly unknown result of this is that it will require a longer time to come to the boiling temperature of 100ºC. It would be better instead to wait for the boiling to start and then carefully add the salt. The addiction of salt at this stage causes a sudden increase of the temperature of the solution for a couple of seconds during which the water increases the bubbling and risks to pour out if the pan’s sides are not sufficiently high.

  So the right pan should be taller than its diameter and capacious enough to contain a good amount of water.

  The minimum ratio between water and pasta is 1lt every 100gr. Although, for small amount of pasta it’s better to use a fairly large and deep pan which will keep the water to temperature also after dropping the pasta in. So that’s why I prefer to use 5lt of water even just to cook a single portion of pasta.

  Another important detail of which to take care, is the right quantity of salt to add to the water. It depends on the quantity of salt the condiment for pasta is going to contain and the cooking time that pasta requires; not only on your personal taste.

  A normal dose of salt is 11-12gr per litre of water and it can be increased to a maximum of 14-15gr for those who like their food to be particularly savoury. When using ingredients which are already salty themselves, like bacon or ham, the dose can be lowered to a minimum of 9-10gr per litre of water, as well as when you know that you will bind pasta with a lot of its own cooking water.

  Keep also in mind that longer cooking time require smaller doses of salt whereas quicker cooking will need a larger dose.

• 2.

  Peeling and dicing the potatoes

  • Potatoes - 500gr

  Quickly wash the potatoes under running water, then peel them and put them into a bowl full of water to prevent them from blackening (step 1 - pic.A).
  Cut the potatoes into 1cm thick slices (step 1 - pic.B).
  Then overlap 3 or 4 slices and cut them into stick first , then into regular cubes: this way the potatoes will cook through at the same time (step 1 - pic.C).
  Set aside.
  

• 3.

  Boiling the spaghetti with the diced potatoes

  • Salt - 35gr
  • The diced potatoes
  • Spaghetti -320gr

  As soon as the water starts boiling, add the salt (step 3 - pic.A).
  Then add the diced potatoes and keep stirring them from time to time for about 1 minute (step 3 - pic.B).
  Add the spaghetti and let them settle and soften for half a minute, then stir them with a pasta server and immerse the completely (step 3 - pic.C).
  Keep stirring from time to time to prevent the spaghetti sticking to each other and mix them together with the diced potatoes (step 3 - pic.D).
  You will need to strain them when perfectly cooked al dent. It should take from 10 to 12 minutes depending on the brand of pasta (check the instructions on the packaging), so it would be better to sync this and the potatoes’ cooking together.
  

  Note about the correct cooking point "al dente”
  

  “Al dente” literally means “to the tooth”. It indicates the perfect consistency that pasta, or any other food, should have at the end of the cooking process: not too soft and not too hard at chewing. Pasta cooked “al dente” maintains a harder consistency at the centre of the dough sheet which gives the diners a pleasant feeling of “biting” rather than “mushing” something under their teeth..

• 4.

  Draining the pasta and binding it to the potatoes and cheese

  • The drained pasta and potatoes mixture
  • Cooking liquor - 150 to 200ml
  • Butter - 45gr
  • Sage leaves - 6 to 8
  • The crushed black pepper
  • The grated Parmigiano cheese

  Collect some cooking liquor with a jug and set aside: from 150 to 200ml will do (step 4 - pic.A).
  Immediately drain the spaghetti through a colander. Then, move the saucepan away from the heat and add to it the butter, the sage and a generous amount of black pepper. The heat will melt the butter (step 4 - pic.B).
  Immediately add the drained spaghetti. Mix quickly, then add some cooking liquor and stir vigorously with a pasta server: this will melt part of the potatoes (step 4 - pic. C.
  Add the grate parmigiano cheese and the rest of the black pepper and stir: you will obtain a creamy sauce which will beautifully coat the spaghetti (step 4 - pic. D.
  Serve immediately.
  

• Servings : 4
• Ready in : 20
• Course : Starter
• Recipe Type : Classic Italian dish, Dry pasta recipes, Pasta, Regional, Vegetarian
• Ingredient : Black Pepper, Butter, Dry Pasta, Parmigiano Cheese, Pasta, Potato, Sage, Salt, Spaghetti, White Flesh Potatoes