Torta di patate alla trentina (Potato Pie)

A shout out to all you potato lovers. I think you’re going to love this rather unique way to enjoy the uber-popular spud. From the Trentino-Alto Adige region in northeastern Italy, it’s called torta di patate or Potato Pie, but it’s not really pie. It’s more like a cross between a potato gratin and a potato pancake.

The recipe for torta di patate is utterly simple: literally just potatoes, grated raw and mixed with a little milk, salt and pepper to form a kind of batter. You pour the batter into a baking pan (traditionally greased with lard but oil will do if you prefer), top it with more lard or oil, and then it’s into a hot oven for about an hour.

The ingredients list—potatoes, fat, salt and pepper—may not sound terribly inspiring. And the cooking method about as basic as it gets. But I think you’ll be astonished by how tasty torta di patate is. Crispy on the outside, perfectly creamy on the inside, I find it just as additive as French fries. Another example of the Italian genius for eking out deliciousness from the very humblest of ingredients.

A slice or two can serve as a side course for just any meat or fish dish. But torta di patate also makes a lovely antipasto accompanied by cheeses and cured meats.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 1.6 kilos (3-1/2 lbs) potatoes, Russet or another ‘mealy fleshed varietal
• 60ml (2 fl oz) whole milk
• salt and pepper
• lard or vegetable oil, q.b.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F on convection roast.

Peel and rinse the potatoes. If you have a crown potato grater, grate the potatoes directly into a bowl (as pictured in the Notes below). Otherwise, cut the potatoes into pieces and purée them in the food processor. The purée shouldn’t be perfectly smooth but still have some texture to it.

Add the milk and season the potato generously with salt and pepper. Mix everything together well.

Grease a baking pan well with the lard (or oil if you prefer). Pour in the potato batter. Dot the top with bits of lard or dizzle with oil.

Place the baking pan in the preheated oven either on the lowest rack or on the actual floor of the oven. Roast for about an hour or so, until the potato batter is cooked through and the bottom is nice and brown but (obviously!) not burnt. Since every oven is different, check on the progress from time to time starting about the 45 minute mark.

Now move the pan to the top rack and let it cook for another 10-15 minutes or so, until the top is golden brown as well.

Remove the baking pan from the oven and lay the torta on a cutting board. Cut into squares and serve while still warm.

Notes

To make your torta di patate, you want patate farinose a pasta bianca or white fleshed “mealy” potatoes. The kind you’d use for mashed potatoes, croquettes or gnocchi. Here in North America, the best choices would be Russets or Yukon Golds. I understand the Mars Piper would be a close equivalent in the UK and, in Australia, Kestrals or Sebagos. In his recipe for torta di patate, Davide Zambelli (who is fast becoming my muse in all things cucina altoatesina) recommends using young autumn potatoes, but I can tell you, having made this dish in the dead of winter, it’s also delicious now.

As mentioned, the traditional tool for grating the potatoes is a proper crown grater. That’s to say a large handheld grater with large round holes with raised serrated edges (hence the “crown”) as pictured below:

This kind of grater actually grates the potatoes into a kind of mush, as you can see in the photo above. Most graters these days don’t grate, they shred the ingredient. For this recipe, we want to give the potato a finer texture—not the shreds you’d go for if you’re making, say, hash browns.*

Inevitably, when grating this quanity of potatoes, the ones you grate first will discolor slightly as you grate the rest. A little bit of discoloration is nothing to worry about, but do be quick about your grating to minimize it.

As mentioned, if you don’t want to use lard, then you can just use oil. But since you’re losing the savor that comes from the lard, I’d lean into the salt and pepper.

For this quantity of potatoes, you’ll ideally want a baking pan about 35×25 cm, which which roughly corresponds to a 13×10 inch quarter sheet pan here in North America. Non-stick is best, but otherwise be extra generous when you grease the pan. If you’re using a sheet pan make sure it has sides high enough to hold the potatoes (at least 3 cm/1 inch.) That said, I wouldn’t worry too much if you’re pan isn’t exactly the ideal size. You can just adjust quantities up or down if need be. Or just know your torta di patate will be a little thinner or thicker, in which case you should adjust the baking time accordingly.

Variations

There’s another way to brown the top of your torta di patate, if you have another baking pan of equal size. Halfway through baking, remove the pan from the oven. Place the second pan on top of the original pan, hold them together tight, and flip the two pans over. (Obviously you’ll want to use oven mitts or towels for this operation.) Then place your torta back on the bottom of the oven. You’ll get better, more even color on both sides with this method. But, a bit like flipping a frittata, it’s not for the faint of heart.

In some recipes, you add a few spoonfuls of flour to thicken the batter, but I found this unnecessary. The liquid cooks off quickly enough in the oven and, besides, I prefer the pure taste of the potatoes. I’ve also found recipes calling for adding both egg and flour to the batter. I haven’t tried it, but I assume changes the character of the dish quite a bit. In some recipes, you drain the potatoes of their excess liquid but I found this unnecessary as well. It may take a little longer, but the liquid cooks off completely in the oven. And I suspect it adds flavor as well.

Tortei di patate

You can also little potato pancakes called turtei with almost the same the batter. Just drain the grated potatoes of their excess liquid and add a few spoonfuls of flour to firm up the batter enough so it will hold together in the skillet. As for torta, there are some recipes where you add egg and/or milk as well, in which case you’ll need more flour to achieve a proper batter.

The batter is added to the skillet by the spoonful to fry in abundant oil (in which you can melt a dollop of lard for extra flavor). Fry on both sides until golden brown.

Making Ahead and Leftovers

While a torta di patate is at its best fresh from the oven, it can be reheated. If you’ve made it ahead, you can warm back up gently it in the oven. A quicker method, especially if you’re just warming a few leftover pieces, is to use a non stick skillet. No need for additional fat, just place as many squares as you want to eat and briefly dry-sauté them on both sides until warmed through.

* It’s a crown grater you want for grating cheese for topping pasta as well, but that’s a topic for another post.

Print Recipe

Torta di patate trentina

Tyrolean Potato Pie

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Total Time2 hours hrs

Course: Antipasto, Side Dish

Cuisine: Trentino-Alto Adige

Keyword: baked

Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1.6 kilos 3-1/2 lbs potatoes, Russet or another ‘mealy fleshed varietal
• 60 ml 2 fl oz whole milk
• salt and pepper
• lard or vegetable oil q.b.

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 200C/400F on convection roast.
• Peel and rinse the potatoes. If you have a proper crown potato grater, grate the potatoes directly into a bowl. Otherwise, cut the potatoes into pieces and purée them in the food processor. The purée shouldn't be perfectly smooth but still have some texture to it.
• Add the milk and season the potato generously with salt and pepper. Mix everything together well.
• Grease a baking pan well with the lard (or oil if you prefer). Pour in the potato batter. Dot the top with bits of lard or dizzle with oil.
• Place the baking pan in the preheated oven either on the lowest rack or on the actual floor of the oven. Roast for about an hour or so, until the potato batter is cooked through and the bottom is nice and brown but (obviously!) not burnt. Since every oven is different, check on the progress from time to time starting about the 45 minute mark.
• Now move the pan to the top rack and let it cook for another 10-15 minutes or so, until the top is golden brown as well.
• Remove the baking pan from the oven and lay the torta on a cutting board. Cut into squares and serve while still warm.

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