'PARSLEYED' POTATOES OR POTATO SALAD WITh PARSLEY, OLIVES AND GARLIC INFUSED OLIVE OIL

Patate prezzemolate. When I heard that name of something that my youngest daughter (again! but she is the only one who still eats in school) had had for lunch, I couldn't stop repeating it to myself, the rhythm and the rhyme of it made it feel like a mantra. It kept on echoing in my head and I felt I had to do something about it before it took over my whole being. Patate prezzemolate patate prezzemolate patate prezzemolate - who can live with that going round in your head in a constant loop? So in order to exorcise (can you tell that I have been looking at a re-run of the Omen films when I do my Teen Taxi duty on Saturday nights? I just can't resist them even though they are soo bad) the two words, I decided to make my own interpretation of parsleyed potatoes as it would be called in English.

In order to make it a little bit more exciting than just potatoes and parsley, I decided to add some small black olives and to make a garlic infused oil. Contrary to what people generally think about Italian cuisine, garlic is used quite sparingly, especially compared to how it is used in Italian cooking by non-Italians. Here garlic is mostly used to flavour olive oil and you pick it up before you start cooking, the garlic press is a rare thing to find in an Italian kitchen for example. There are obviously dishes where you use it raw or in large amounts but they are relatively rare I find.

'PARSLEYED' POTATOES OR POTATO SALAD WITh PARSLEY, OLIVES AND GARLIC INFUSED OLIVE OIL

500 g/ 1,1 lb new potatoes (if possible)
a bunch of parsley, finely chopped
black olives, I used olives in olive oil. If the olives are big, chop them roughly
2 garlic cloves
salt
2 + 2-3 tblsp extra-virgin olive oil

- Boil the potatoes without peeling them.
- Peel and slice the garlic cloves, put them in a small pan and add 2 tblsp of olive oil. Heat up gently, the garlic should not cook, just let go of its flavours so be careful. Leave to cool down and when cold, take out the garlic and mix with the rest of the olive oil.
- Cut the potatoes in pieces, I keep the skin if possible because I like it but you can remove it if you want, and put them in a bowl.
- Add parsley, salt and olives to the oil and mix it with the potatoes. Ready!