Meatless Monday - Potato Tortino

This is comfort food.  A tortino is a type of pie that's made san a pastry crust.  You make them with chopped or puréed vegetables. I used 2 baking potatoes and one sweet potato to make the two pound of potatoes but you could use all of one kind or the other or even use turnips instead of some of the potatoes.  The other vegetable I used was spinach.  I just laid the leaves in and let them bake into the potatoes and cheese. You could also add mushrooms, leeks, fennel, carrots, tomatoes...the types of vegetables used is limited only by availability and your taste.

Potato Tortino

Ingredients:

2 Pounds of potatoes, cut up for mashing, peeled if desired (I didn't peel them)
4 TBS butter
3 TBS ricotta cheese
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
pinch of nutmeg
salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 TBS olive oil
6 oz mozzarella cheese, sliced
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Chopped or pureed vegetable of your choice

Directions:

Cook the potatoes in lightly salted boiling water for 20 minutes or until they are tender.  Drain and put into a mixing bowl.  Add the butter, eggs, milk, ricotta, and garlic.  Mix well and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.  The mixture should be fairly soft like mashed potatoes.

Grease a casserole dish with the olive oil and dust with half of the Parmesan cheese.  Pour in half of the potato mixture and cover with the sliced mozzarella cheese.  Add a layer of vegetables.  Pour in the rest of the potato mixture and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese.  Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.  The top should be nicely browned, if not, give it a few more minutes.

Makes about 6 servings.

What vegetables would you use?

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