Spuds you'll like: Yotam Ottolenghi's potato recipes | Food (2024)

But for all the simple beauty of these time-honoured favourites, there is so much more you can do to showcase the potato's versatility andability to take on other flavours. My beloved Greta may well deem today's recipes as verging on the blasphemous, but they do put her favourite tuber in a fresh context.

A similar approach can be applied to imaginative effect in a potato tatin, where new potatoes replace the apples, and are layered with a salty element or two such as feta, olives or anchovies. Likewise, try any sweet, soft herb – dill, mint, chervil, chives, say – instead of the more commonly used parsley.

And if it's bitterness or acidity that floats your boat, try dressing new potatoes with lemon-infused oil. One Indian-inspired favourite of mine is mashed potato mixed with lemon juice, breadcrumbs, coriander and chilli, shaped into patties, fried and served with chutney and yoghurt. Not even Greta would object to that.

Iranian vegetable stew with dried lime

Serve this sweet, sharp stew with steamed rice. Serves six.

50g clarified butter
1 large onion, peeled and finely diced
½ tsp ground turmeric
1½ tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp tomato paste
20g coriander
10g tarragon
10g dill
1kg waxy potatoes, peeled and chopped into 4cm chunks
1 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and chopped into 4cmchunks
3 Iranian limes, pierced 2-3 times
1 whole green chilli, slit on one side from stem to tip
Salt
5 medium tomatoes, quartered
150g spinach leaves
15g barberries
300g Greek yoghurt (optional)

Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Put a large casserole dish on medium heat and sauté the butter, onion, turmeric and cumin for 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, for two minutes. Tie all the herbs into a bunch and add to the pot with the potatoes, squash, limes, chilli, a teaspoon and a half ofsalt and a litre of water. Bring to aboil, turn down the heat and boil gently for 15 minutes, until the potatoes are semi-cooked. Stir through the tomatoes, spinach and barberries, crushing the limes gently as you do so, to release some of the juices inside.

Tip into a large roasting tray and bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes, until the sauce has thickened a little and the vegetables are soft. Remove from the oven and leave to sit for five minutes, then serve with a dollop of yoghurt on the side, if you like.

Super-rich white pizza

For the dough
230g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
1½ tsp fast-action dried yeast
½ tsp baking powder
1 tbsp caster sugar
75ml olive oil
1 egg
100ml lukewarm water

Heat the oven to 240C/465F/gas mark 9. For the dough, put the flour, half a tablespoon of salt, the yeast, baking powder and sugar in the bowl of a free-standing mixer. Usingthe dough hook, stir on low speed to combine, then add the oil and egg. Stir again and, with the motor running, slowly add the lukewarm water. Mix until the dough comes together (add a little flour if it's very sticky), then remove from the bowl and knead on a lightly floured work surface for three minutes, until elastic and uniform. Place in a bowl, cover and put somewhere warm for an hour; the dough will rise, but not by much.

Put the remaining olive oil in amedium frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the onion, rosemary and chopped oregano, stir in a quarter-teaspoon of salt and cook, stirring often, for about six minutes, until the onions have softened. Addthe chopped anchovies, cook for two minutes, then stir in the cream for a minute and set aside.

Turn down the oven to 230C/450F/gas mark 8. Put two very large baking trays upside down in the oven to heat up, and line two flat baking sheets with baking parchment. Cut the dough in half and roll each half into a thin, 32cm-diameter circle. Transfer to the parchment-lined trays and spread the anchovy mixture over the top, leaving a 2cm border all around the edge. Dot the potatoes on top. Tear the mozzarella into chunks and scatter over, sprinkle over the parmesan and lay on the whole anchovy fillets and half of the whole oregano leaves.

• Yotam Ottolenghi is chef/patron of Ottolenghi and Nopi in London.

His new More 4 show, Ottolenghi's Mediterranean Island Feast, starts next Thursday at 9pm.