A typical dish of Salento cuisine suitable for a dinner or an appetizer, to be enjoyed both hot and cold.
The pizzaiola potato pitta consists of a kind of rustic two-layer focaccia baked in the oven based on potatoes, cheese, breadcrumbs and eggs and with a filling of fried onion, tomato sauce, black olives and capers.
Let’s see how to prepare it.
SERVINGS:6
- 7 medium yellow potatoes
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups of grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
- oregano to taste
- a handful of breadcrumbs
- 5 large onions
- 2 cups of fresh tomato sauce
- 1 cup of black olives
- pickled capers
- salt to taste
DIRECTIONS:
First we wash the potatoes and boil them in a saucepan covering them with cold water.
Let them cook for about an hour, then drain and peel them.
While they are still hot, let’s pass them with the potato masher, making the consistency of a puree and let them cool.
In the meantime, prepare the sauce by slicing the thin onions and browning them over low heat together with a generous dose of extra virgin olive oil; to avoid burning the onions, cook over low heat and if necessary add a little hot water to the sauté.
After about ten minutes, add the tomato sauce, a pinch of salt to the sauté and let it cook until the sauce shrinks.
Just before the end of the cooking of the sauce, add capers and pitted black olives and cut into small pieces, sauté them again for a few minutes to flavor the sauce well.
Let it cool down.
Take the now pureed potato puree and add a whole egg, grated cheese, a pinch of salt, a sprinkling of oregano and about two tablespoons of sauce.
We knead until the mixture is homogeneous.
When the sauce and the potato-based mixture are cold, make up the pitta: butter a non-stick baking dish, lightly sprinkle it with the breadcrumbs and spread half of the potato mixture in a first layer that is not too high pouring the sauce.
Cover with another layer of potatoes and grease the surface with a sprinkling of breadcrumbs.
Bake at 390 F for about 30 minutes until a golden brown crust is obtained on the surface.
