This popular dish, called porpetton de faxolin in dialect, is irresistible. Polpettone in the rest of Italy means meat loaf, but in vegetable-crazy Liguria there is no meat in sight. This tart is wonderful as a snack, an antipasto, or a main course. For Ligurians it has the particular association of being the food that is packed to take along for hikes and country outings.
An intriguing mixture of flavors characterizes this complex salad, with sweet, sour, pungent, and fruity blending in a sauce that shows its Chinese origins with soy sauce, plum sauce, and sesame oil. It makes a light but satisfying summer meal or an exotic addition to the buffet table.
Excerpted from Happy in the Kitchen: The Craft of Cooking, the Art of Eating by Michel Richard (Artisan, 2006). Copyright 2006 by Michel Richard.
Ingredients
Sometimes if you cut a vegetable in a different fashion it will make it seem entirely new.
Country women in Romagna used to bake these potatoes each week along with their homemade bread. Cloaked in olive oil and flavored with bits of cured pork, rosemary, garlic and tomatoes, the potatoes roasted near the opening of the big bread ovens, where the women could easily turn and baste them with the pan juices. The feast of the day was the crusty potatoes, fresh-baked bread, and homemade wine. Not a bad idea today, but these roasted potatoes are good with nearly everything from a green salad to chicken to seafood.
From Learning to Cook with Marion Cunningham, by Marion Cunningham.