Despite the fact that I’ve been trying to stop buying books lately, I picked up two new cookbooks shortly after we moved into our house. I figured they were worth trying to find the space for, and I was right. At first glance, Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty: Vibrant Recipes from London’s Ottolenghi
and Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen
We’re definitely into potato salad season, and so far I’m loving being back in California in the summer (even though it’s a bit grey and gloomy this week). We’ve been spending tons of time outdoors, and it’s wonderful that it’s not sticky and humid and miserable. We attended two barbecues on Fourth of July weekend (and I made some wonderful food for both, which I’ll be sharing shortly), and last weekend we went up to the Russian River for a friend’s birthday, the first time I’ve been in the area. While I didn’t make this potato salad for any of these outdoors events, it’s a terrific salad for a picnic, what with the lack of mayonnaise.
Both Heidi and Yotam have recipes in their books that are quite similar to this, and I used both recipes as inspiration. And this might be one of the best potato salads I’ve ever made. The potatoes I used are very, very small purple and yellow potatoes with a smooth, almost-waxy interior. I’ve been seeing them all summer at Whole Foods, Berkeley Bowl, and the farmers’ markets, and I just love them. They remind mind of small, smooth river rocks. They’re only about half an inch to an inch in diameter, so I didn’t cut them up for this recipe. If yours are bigger, chop them into roughly bite-sized pieces.
I also used a splash of verjus, a slightly sour liquid made from green grapes, to add just a little bit of tartness to the finished dish. If you don’t have verjus, a squeeze of lemon juice will suffice (Meyer lemon juice would be the best).
Ottolenghi recommends using quail eggs in his salad, and cooking them until they are soft-boiled, rather than hard-boiled, so a bit of yolk mixes into the salad. I wasn’t really up for sourcing quail eggs when I was making this salad for an easy weeknight dinner, and I decided I’d rather have hard-boiled eggs. If you try this with soft-boiled egss (or quail eggs!) please let me know how it turns out.
Pesto and Egg Potato Salad
I didn’t use basil pesto for this, but simply basil pureed in oil, so it didn’t have the additional cheesy flavor. If you’re using pesto, you might want to skip the additional parmesan.
I’ve read many things about hard-boiling eggs, and every one has their method. The one I detail below works for me; if you have another method you like, by all means, go ahead. If you’d like to try the eggs soft boiled, cook them for about half the time.
- 4 eggs
- about 2-3 cups of small potatoes, or chopped potatoes
- about 2 tablespoons basil oil puree, or basil pesto
- about 2 tablespoons sun-dried tomato pesto
- about 1 tablespoon of verjus, or the juice of half a lemon
- a big handful of chopped parsley
- salt to taste
- Parmesan cheese to taste
Put the eggs in a sauce pan and add enough cold water to cover them. Cover the pot and bring the water to a boil. Once it’s boiling, remove the pot from the heat and let the eggs sit, covered, for 12 minutes. Drain the pot and run cold water over the eggs to cool. Once they’re cool enough to handle, peel the eggs and chop them roughly.
While the eggs are cooling, bring another large pot of water to a boil. Add the potatoes, and boil for about 8-10 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft, but don’t crumble when you pierce them with a fork. Drain the potatoes and run them under cold water until they’re cool. You can also refrigerate the eggs and potatoes together to cool them.
Stir together the two kinds of pesto and the verjus or lemon juice, then stir the mixture into the bowl with the potatoes, chopped eggs, and parsley. Season to taste with salt (and pepper, if you like), and add grated Parmesan to your liking (I used about 1/3 cup).
