Tato salad.

Pulled my first tatoes ever today, and the smallest went directly from the garden to the pot.

Boil about 800 g or a kilo of little potaoes, until tender (some 10-15 minutes). Drain and rub the peel off (or leave it, if thin, as you prefer). Cut them in two or three pieces each and drizzle geneurously with balsamic vineagre, salt, and good olive oil.

Toss 200 g of diced bacon in a pan until crisp, and put it with the tatoes.

At the very last moment add fresh green salad, and some red radicchio if you have it.

This is a terribly nice warm/cold salad I ate once in a restaurant near Parma, and I prepare it from time to time. It is the only way I like boiled tatoes.

 

It is nice. Another hot-cold salad (a whole meal actually) that I like is this:

2 large potatoes, or 2 handfuls of small potatoes, boiled tender, peeled and crushed (not mashed, not cut, crushed)
2 onions, cut into rings
2 medium zucchini, diced
2 bell peppers, cut into small pieces
1 or 2 cloves of garlick, finely chopped
a fresh leek or a couple of spring onions, cut into rings
a red chilli, cut into fine rings
Four or five medium sized tomatoes, chopped
200 g of feta cheese, crumbled
Olive oil, balsamic vineagre, seasoning to taste, basilicum, optional.

Toss the crushed tatoes in a large pan with the onion ringsand a bit of oil, until lightly brown on the corners. Set aside. Add a spoon or two of oil to the pan and lightly fry the peppers for five minutes, add the zucchini and fry for 5 more minutes. Put the potatoes back into the pan to warm them up. Mix in the garlic and chili. Take from the fire and season with good olive oil, 3 spoons of balsamic vineagre, salt and pepper to taste. Add the fresh leek, tomatoes and feta, mix and serve while still hot.

You can actually vary the ingredients depending on what you have it is grat for those days when the garden provides you bit and odds, two tomatoes, six green beans, one and a half zucchino and a potato... The only trick is not to overcook the veggies, so put them in the pan ina order that cook each of them just for the right time. Yummy yummy.