cookery · viii

potatoes

four · forty minutes · the mountain months

ingredients

• a kilo of small waxy potatoes, unpeeled
• coarse salt, two heavy spoons
• cold water, to cover by a finger
• a bay leaf, if the larder has one

method

1. scrub the potatoes; set them in cold salted water with the bay; bring to a slow boil.
2. cook until a thin knife slides in without protest, perhaps half an hour.
3. drain, return to the dry pot, set it on the lowest heat for a minute to make their skins go silvery.

the salt should be enough that the water tastes briefly of the sea.

eat with a piece of anchovy butter melting on top, or with whatever the kitchen has at eight; what is left becomes supper, warmed.