Recipe
Gattò di patate with ham and mozzarella
For most of my childhood I was fairly sure my grandmother was serving us a cat.
Gattò is what Neapolitans call this dish, and to a small child the difference between gattò and gatto is not audible. I was told repeatedly that it was potatoes. I did not entirely believe it, on the grounds that if it was potatoes, why did it have a different name from potatoes, and why was everybody quite so pleased about it.
The word is French. It is gâteau, cake, and it arrived in Naples with the monzù, which is the Neapolitan rendering of monsieur: the French chefs employed in aristocratic Bourbon households in the eighteenth century, who brought béchamel and sartù and a great deal of butter, and whose job title survives in a handful of dish names that Naples has been mispronouncing with total confidence for two hundred years.
The dish itself is not remotely aristocratic. It is mashed potato enriched with egg and cheese, packed into a dish with mozzarella and ham buried in the middle, covered in breadcrumbs, and baked until the top goes deep brown and slightly crisp. It is what you make when there are too many potatoes and the ends of several things.
My grandmother made it in a dish with a chipped rim, cut it into squares that were far too big, and it was better the next day, cold, out of the fridge, eaten standing up, than it had been hot on the table.
That is also its argument for being in this book. A gattò slices like a brick, cannot leak, tastes of more when cold, and reheats without drying out, because there is enough cheese in it to protect it from a microwave.
- Prep 30 min
- Cook 40 min
- Serves 4
- Cost €
Method
- 1
Boil the potatoes whole in their skins in salted water until a knife slides through with no resistance. Whole and unpeeled keeps them from waterlogging, which is what ruins most potato bakes.
30 min
- 2
Peel them while still hot, holding them in a tea towel, and mash them smooth. Beat in the butter, then the eggs, the parmigiano, the parsley, nutmeg, salt and pepper.
10 min
- 3
Butter an oven dish and dust it with a third of the breadcrumbs, which is what gives the sides and base a crust rather than a soft skin.
3 min
- 4
Spread in half the potato, then cover with the ham and the drained mozzarella, leaving a clear border so the cheese cannot escape at the edges.
5 min
- 5
Cover with the rest of the potato and level the top. Scatter the remaining breadcrumbs over and trickle the oil across.
4 min
- 6
Bake at 190°C fan until the top is deep brown. Rest 15 minutes before cutting, or it will not hold a square.
40 min
Variations
Salami, mortadella or leftover roast meat instead of ham. Provola or scamorza for a smoky middle. Add a layer of fried mushrooms or of spinach squeezed very dry. For a vegetarian version, drop the ham and double the cheese with a spoon of pesto through the potato. Milk instead of some of the butter makes it lighter. Freezes cooked, in squares, for 2 months.