A hundred years ago, Maccarese (north of Rome) was a large swamp, home to the Rospigliosi castle and where people died of malaria. After several failed attempts by Prince Rospigliosi, the swamp became public property, and finally, with the momentum of the twenty-year period, reclamation arrived, and Maccarese became a full-fledged agricultural enterprise.
The land that emerged from the reclamation was soft, sandy, and extremely fertile. An ideal place for horticultural production and the perfect terrain for carrots and potatoes.
It's time for new potatoes, those with such thin skins that it's almost a shame to remove them, and it's time to experiment with summer recipes.
The potato is a versatile food, present in almost every cuisine in the world.
It originated in Peru and quickly conquered Europe, to the point of creating a food dependency in some populations as repeated wars destroyed their crops. Its history is so intertwined with that of man that the arrival of phylloxera (a disease that destroyed vineyards in 19th-century Europe) brought a famine that forced the Irish to migrate en masse to the Americas.
That said, getting back to the point, today we make potatoes in a light stew with the addition of a octopus. The octopus is a smaller sand octopus than the real thing and is distinguished by a single row of suckers.
We sauté garlic, oil, chili pepper, and a few basil stalks in a pan with a freshly sliced spring onion. We brown the potatoes and deglaze with a spoonful of apple cider vinegar. Then we add a few Piccadilly tomatoes just for color, but we don't cut them. As they are, we toast them with the potatoes and only at the end do we remove the skins. Every now and then we add a drizzle of water to keep them soft.
Once the potato is cooked, add the baby octopus and let it simmer for a few minutes. No more. Don't overcook the sauce; it's a soup!
What shall we drink? I had an excellent Pinot Blanc from Cormons, and I have to say it was a perfect match.
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