"TIELLA" Di Nonna Mena / Potatoes & Artichokes

If you ask about the TIELLA to anyone who was grown up in Puglia, they will certainly answer: "Dude, nobody can cook it as good as my NONNA (grandma) used to do!".

That is true, the Tiella is not only a dish, but is the primordial act of love, the one from the grandmother/mother.

Tasting the love in certain southern Italian recipes isn't a legend but a it is a fact. When I say tasting the love I mean tasting the deja-vu of your childhood, tasting the moment when the courtyard where all the kids were playing was filled by the fragrance of the Tiella.

And of couse, my Nonna Mena was the best cook of Tiella ever!

Now I'll tell you one: maybe we won't have the cherry tomatoes of the harvest of my grandpa, but there is some secret in the preparation of the Tiella, that is the key of the taste of love, and today I will share it with you.

> All the steps to not miss to give the taste of love will be in red.

Ingredients:

Peel potatoes, artichokes and shallot/onion and cut them in slices.

Trickle with EVOO a baking pan ad cover its bottom with onions.

Then proceed with the first layer of potatoes. Season every layer with parmesan or pecorino, garlic, salt peppers and fresh herbs.

Then proceed with the second layers: artichokes. Season again as done before. Then proceed with the last layer of potatoes. Season again, this time adding the breadcrumbs to make it crunchy. Squeeze few half tomatoes on the top to avoid to burn the top layer.

Now that the Tiella is ready add water until covering the bottom layer of the potatoes. Cook on medium fire for 10 minutes then bake for 40 minutes on 200 C*.

Your Tiella is ready. You can eat it straight away or as Nonna Mena would suggest: "Let it seat for a while". No need to say that the day after is even more tasty.