Green Mashed Potatoes

My final NYTimes recipe for the Easter season, but one well worth posting as I actually really enjoyed this one. The mashed potatoes turned out so pretty and green! And so delicious! I did make some minor (major?) changes to the recipe, Mark Bittman would be so proud! Instead of using one whole pound of greens (a whole pound! so many greens!) and boiling them, I used 6 oz. of fresh spinach and chopped it up finely, and then added it uncooked to the hot potatoes before I mashed them, so that the spinach softened a little bit in the hot potatoes. I used double the amount of potatoes (three large, three smaller) for that amount of spinach, and added butter and some milk powder to the potatoes instead of the olive oil recommended by Mr. Bittman. I did use seasoned bread crumbs, and baked the potatoes in a pie plate, but I found that the bread crumbs were not to my taste although I could see how others might like them. If I make these again, I would either not add the crumbs, or I would serve it with croutons or top it with larger crumbs so the final result is not as gritty feeling in the mouth. Also, if I did use bread crumbs, I would be tempted to mix them separately with olive oil and then spread them over the top, so as to more evenly distribute the oil across the crumbs.

Overall I think the idea of adding greens to the potatoes, no matter how you do it, is quite nice and might as well be done if you have the little bit of extra time.

Here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/dining/111mrex.html

Ingredients:

2 large starchy or all-purpose potatoes (about 1 pound), peeled and cut into quarters

Salt

1 pound dandelion or other greens, washed and trimmed of thick stems

1/4 to 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

1 cup homemade bread crumbs

Directions:

1. Put potatoes in a large, deep pot and cover them with cold water. Add a large pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Cook until soft but not falling apart, 15 to 30 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain; meanwhile, add greens to water and cook for about 1 minute. Rinse under cold water. Drain well, then chop.

2. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Rice potatoes, run them through a food mill, or mash them with a fork or potato masher, adding enough olive oil to moisten them well. Mash in the greens, adding more olive oil as needed. Sprinkle with salt and lots of pepper.

3. Put mixture in an ovenproof dish and top with bread crumbs. Drizzle with more olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake until bread crumbs are golden brown, about 15 minutes. Serve hot or warm.

Yield: 4 servings.