Boca-tato Casserole

In 2010, Mike and I went to Rome and Paris for Thanksgiving week! It was a beautiful trip, and I would love to go back to both cities someday! While walking around a little food market, we stumbled upon this guy selling these cool little gadgets! Here’s a short video I took of him demonstrating the tools. Too bad I didn’t record the whole demonstration this guy was really funny! He had a little plastic fish, chicken and a dog. He was describing what went well with each main dish. A lady walked up, he grabbed the dog, pointed at her and started saying how potatoes carrots went well with dog and that they also made good plate decorations. That’s what he’s talking about here:

Anyways, I was so impressed with these little gadgets, I had to buy the kit. Mike still thinks it’s funny that I spent 18 euro on this little kit, and brought it thousands of miles back home, but like I said, I just had to. Here’s a photo of the three tools that came in the kit:

The clear tool is for getting juice out of fruits, I’ve used it mostly for lemon juice. The orange tool is for making thin swirls, this works best with big carrots and cucumbers. We’ve tried out the two smaller tools, but I hadn’t even opened the Ricciolo box. Until now…

 I decided to try out my own recipe for roasted potatoes using my new gadget!

Ingredients:

• 4 Potatoes
• 4 Original Boca Patties
• Thyme
• Olive Oil
• Fresh Basil
• Salt
• Parmesan Cheese

You will also need:

• Oven safe dish
• Foil or non-stick cooking spray (I should have used this- I put my muscles to work getting my dish clean from cooked on potatoes)
• A medium size skillet
• A spatula

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line oven safe dish with aluminum foil or spray a light layer of non-stick cooking spray.
2. Take the Boca patties out of the freezer to thaw.
3. Cut up your potatoes in cubes. (this cut is the best for cooking each bite evenly I learned that the hard way by using the swirly gadget this time)
4. Put the cubes of potatoes in your oven safe dish, spray a light layer of olive oil and lightly sprinkle some thyme over the top.
5. Put the dish in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, check to make sure the potatoes aren’t getting dry. If they are, spray or mix in a little more olive oil.
6. While the potatoes are cooking, take the thawed Boca patties and cook them in a skillet. As they cook, dice into small pieces using your spatula. Mix in a few sprinkles of basil.
7. After 30 minutes take the potato dish out of the oven (add a little more olive oil if they look dry) and mix in your cooked Boca meat and salt. Stir well.
8. Sprinkle a light layer of Parmesan cheese on the top.
9. Put the dish back in the oven to cook for another 15 minutes. (or until you see the potatoes begin to brown)
10. When you see some of the potatoes start to brown, sprinkle the rest of the basil on the top and cook for another 5 minutes
11. Remove from the oven and enjoy!

Print the recipe here.

This recipe was pretty good, but won’t be using my fancy gadget again for this, the potatoes weren’t cooked evenly. Next time, I’m definitely going to cube the potatoes!