Italian Potato Salad
It’s just potatoes, salt, olive oil, and vinegar.
But the ability to make such a deceptively simple dish with these ingredients isn’t falling-off-the-log simple.
There’s picking the perfect potatoes.
Then there’s cooking them to just the correct point of doneness.
Then there is peeling them while still very hot.
Then there is slicing them thick enough to keep from falling apart.
Then there is working fast so the potatoes will still be warm enough to make magic with the vinegar when it is splashed over the top.
Then of course there is using just the right amount of salt to bring out the flavor.
And finally there is the liberal drizzle of a flavorful olive oil. (Preferably bright green, newly pressed, and unfiltered.)
And, yet again, I made a meal of this one single dish. This chapter could turn me into a vegetarian.
An Italian friend, newly married and working in Massachusetts, sent his wife to me in New York because she couldn’t make this salad, which he considered essential to happiness. Please note, olive oil doesn’t work on unpeeled potatoes.
Deborah responds: Love this story, Marcella. That was a lucky bride whose husband had such great connections. 😀
This is a great recipe, but I had to add a teaspoon of dried Italian herbs and tossed it up with the coarse salt and olive oil just before serving. I think fresh lemon thyme would also work to add a little zing.