Cheese, potato and basil sformato
- Prepare
- 1-2 hours
- Cook
- 1 to 2 hours
- Serve
- Serves 4–6
- Dietary
- Nut-freePregnancy-friendly
Sformato is a traditional Italian dish similar to a flan – it takes a while to assemble but is relatively easy to make.
By Matt Tebbutt
From Saturday Kitchen
Ingredients
For the sformato
- 30g/1oz unsalted butter
- 30g/1oz plain flour
- 450ml/16fl oz whole milk
- 3 medium free-range eggs, beaten
- 250g/9oz ricotta
- 250g/9oz wild rocket
- 250g/9oz spinach, stalks removed
- grating of fresh whole nutmeg
- 150g/5½oz Parmesan, grated
- 1 ball hard-style mozzarella, chopped
- 500g/1lb 2oz potato, peeled, cooked and chopped into chunks
- 25g/1oz fresh basil, shredded
- 3 banana shallots, sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, sliced
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
To serve
Method
To make the sformato, preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7 and line a 16cm/6in springform cake tin.
Melt the butter in a saucepan until light brown then stir in the flour. Slowly whisk in the milk to make a roux. Once smooth, set aside to cool.
Once cool, add the eggs and ricotta to the roux and mix.
Heat a large frying pan and add a little oil. Fry the rocket and spinach in a pan to wilt. Grate over some nutmeg and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Drain and cool. Chop up.
Mix this into the roux along with the cheeses and the cooked potatoes. Add the basil.
Tip the mixture into the lined springform 16cm/6in cake tin, smooth the top and grate over more Parmesan. Bake for 30 minutes or so, then allow to cool in the tin.
Once cooked and cooled, turn out onto a serving dish. Serve with the sliced tomatoes, rocket and sliced shallots on top with more of the grated Parmesan.
