If there is one vegetable that it's hard to go wrong with - it is definitely potatoes.
I love it in almost every form and type of cooking. Mashed potatoes, French fries, roasted in the oven, in an outdoor oven, in a bonfire fire, grilled, in soup.. and so on and so on.. I think you get me :)
Gratin with spinach and ricotta - thin slices of fooling around in the oven with some heavy cream, milk and Parmesan cheese, between them layers of potatoes I add a little bit of spinach and ricotta cheese just to make it even better. After an hour and a half in the oven the result is dreamy!
Ingredients:
10-12 small-medium potatoes
3 cloves of garlic
250 ml heavy cream
100 ml of milk
200 grams of Parmesan cheese
400 grams of spinach
3 tablespoons fresh ricotta cheese
Half a teaspoon of nutmeg
Salt
Ground black pepper
Butter
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
Boil the cream together with the milk, two cloves of crushed garlic, grated nutmeg, salt and black pepper.
Peel the potatoes and slice them into thin slices, this can be done with a knife but much more convenient with a mandolin.
Pour the cream over the potatoes and let them sit for a while in the mixture.
Meanwhile, wash the spinach leaves. Dry them and fry them slightly on a pan with a little bit of olive oil salt and pepper. Pay attention to time - too much time on the pan it will become too mushy.
Remove it from the pan to and squeeze the liquids out of it.
Chop the spinach and mix it in a bowl with the ricotta and 50 grams of parmesan. Taste, if necessary you can add a little more salt or pepper.
Spread butter on the pan to grease it and then take half a clove of garlic and rub the pan.
Start arranging the potatoes in the pan, after 2-3 layers add the spinach and ricotta mixture. I like to spread it in parts and not apply it a whole layer that covers all of the potatoes. but you can spread it anyway you like.
Then continue to create more layers of potatoes and again - spinach ricotta mixture. And so on.
Sprinkle some Parmesan cheese between the layers as well, but remember to keep enough to sprinkle on top.
Finally, when all the layers are arranged in the pan, pour the remaining cream until it reaches the top layer.
Cover with aluminium foil and put in the oven for an hour.
After an hour, remove the foil, sprinkle the remaining parmesan on top and put in the oven for another 20-30 minutes.
Peek in from time to time to see that the top layer does not get too brown. If so, you can put the foil back so that it won't burn.
When the gratin is ready, let it cool down a bit and stabilize. And this is.. ready to be served! I like to serve it with a little more parmesan on top :)
Enjoy!
