I recently received the translated (Dutch) version of this beautiful book by Huw Richards and Sam Cooper and what a joy it was to read it!
It is the perfect manual to start your own vegetable garden and enjoy its produce (and beyond, with suggestions on how to forage too) the whole year round, with great instructions on just everything: how to plant and what, growing month by month, composting, building your own greenhouse and a ton of other great tips.
The last part of the book is dedicated to the transformation of your harvest in the kitchen.
If you’ve ever had a few courgette or pumpkin plants, you know that at a certain point you have so many that you don’t know how to use them anymore. That’s when the “In the kitchen” chapter comes in handy, with great recipes for sauces, salads, soups, preserves, fermented foods, condiments, pastry, drinks and a lot more.
I got inspired by one of their recipes, a tray-bake made with left-over potatoes, and I decided to use some thinly sliced taters which I had previously blanched, together with some cavolo nero (Tuscan kale) leaves which had been blanched too. Both were left-overs from one of my cooking classes (this one, class 3).
I added a jar of cooked white beans and two different types of cheese, and the result was this delicious tray-bake.
Try it whenever you have left-over potatoes (also boiled or steamed, whole or diced) and choose any vegetables of choice to go with them. The white beans in my version are an extra source of proteins.
FIND THE RECIPE UNDER THE PHOTOS
Photo by me
Sformato di patate e cavolo nero
Serves 4
150 gr. blanched or boiled Tuscan kale
190 gr. thinly sliced potatoes (use a mandolin), blanched
220 gr. white beans, cooked
100 gr. smoked scamorza cheese or other cheese of choice
enough grated Parmesan cheese for 2 layers
e.v. olive oil
salt and black pepper
Preheat the oven at 170°C.
Use a baking dish of about 25 x 15 cm. and drizzle with some olive oil.
Cover the bottom of the dish with a layer of potato slices (half of what you have), then with the coarsely chopped Tuscan kale.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add a generous sprinkle of grated Parmesan cheese (half of what you have) and then cover with the diced scamorza cheese.
Add the strained and rinsed beans, then the other half of the potato slices.
Drizzle with some olive oil, season further and cover with another oven dish or a lid to protect from burning.
Bake covered at 170° C for about 20 minutes, then remove the cover and sprinkle the rest of parmesan cheese over the potatoes. Bake further without cover at 180°C until golden brown.
Strooi er royaal geraspte Parmezaanse kaas over (de helft van wat je hebt) en bedek het geheel met de in blokjes gesneden scamorza kaas.
Voeg de gezeefde en afgespoelde bonen toe en vervolgens de andere helft van de aardappelschijfjes, dakpansgewijs.
Besprenkel met wat olijfolie, breng verderop smaak en dek af met een andere ovenschaal of een deksel om aanbranden te voorkomen.
Bak afgedekt op 170°C gedurende ongeveer 20 minuten, verwijder daarna het deksel en strooi de rest van de parmezaanse kaas over de aardappelen. Bak verder zonder deksel op 180°C tot goudbruin.
