Writing in 1891, in his cooking manual La Scienza in Cucina e L’arte di Mangiar Bene (Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well), Pellegrino Artusi introduces the potato as a tuber from the solanaceae (nightshade) family that was native to South America and introduced to Europe in the 16th century. He goes on to note that large-scale cultivation didn’t begin in Italy until the beginning of the 18th century, due to the “obstinacy of the masses who were averse to eating it”, adding that, little by little, the potato became more than accepted (by the poor as well as the rich), because of its good taste, ability to satisfy hunger and the way it lent itself to being cooked in so many ways.
If my counting is correct, of 790 recipes in that seminal book, 30 of them include potatoes or a significant proportion of potato flour. What is especially interesting is that even though the first recipe that includes potatoes is recipe 14 (a tasty-sounding brothy minestra with little gnocchi made from potatoes, boiled chicken, yolks and cheese), plus 14 more savoury potato recipes that Artusi waits to introduce, it isn’t until the chapter entitled Torte e dolci al Cucchiaio (Cakes and Desserts Eaten with a Spoon) that the potato is formally presented. In recipe 661, budino di patate, a soft, blancmange-style pudding that definitely requires a spoon, is made from floury potatoes, sugar, eggs, milk and lemon zest. In that same chapter, and the preceding biscuit and pastry chapter, 13 other recipes also include potatoes or potato flour: three types of biscuit, two souffles, a bake with amaretti biscuits, a shortcrust-type pastry, a sweet focaccia, another sweet bread, another budino (this time with almonds), and three cakes.
