This quick and easy side dish is a favorite for a weekend brunch.
serves: 4 – 8 difficulty: easy prep time: 20 – 30 min
Ingredients
- 2 lbs small potatoes
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 6 oz pitted kalamata olives
- bunch of basil
- [optional] 1/2 tbs chili flakes
Preparation
Fill a pot with water and bring it to a boil. Place the potatoes in the water, and boil them until they are cooked – 10-15 min. You can test doneness by piercing a potato with a fork – if the fork goes in easy, they are done.
Once the potatoes are cooked pour out the hot water, and rinse the potatoes under cold water 1) in order to stop the cooking process and 2) to make them easier to handle.
Slice each potato in half.
Heat the olive oil in a large fry pan, and place a batch of potatoes cut side down in the pan. There are two ways to to this – either carefully place each potato slice cut side down, but that risks of burning yourself on the splattering hot oil, or dump the entire batch in the pan, and using tongs, turn the slices cut side down. Make sure not to overcrowd the pan. Fry the potatoes until the cut side is golden brown. Proceed in batches until you have fried all potatoes.
While the potatoes are frying, open the canned tomatoes and puree them using a hand blender.
Dice the olives in 3-5 pieces each.
Return all potatoes to the fry pan, and turn off the heat. Add the pureed tomatoes and sliced olives. Stir the mixture. Add 1 tbs salt, and ground black pepper. Optionally, add some chili flakes to give it some kick.
Right before you are ready to serve the dish, chop the basil and add it to the potatoes.
Serve as a side dish to eggs or a sandwich. In this case I had some leftover roast lamb from the night before which I turned into a sandwich by placing a slice on a piece of buttered bread, and topping it with a poached egg.
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