Vegetable
New potato
Patata nuevaPatata novaSolanum tuberosum
You can tell a new potato because the skin rubs off with your thumb. It's the spring and summer one; the all-year potato is something else, and it's been waiting for you in a store for months.
When
Around: May–Aug · At its best: Jun–Jul
Around: Mar–Aug · At its best: Apr–Jun
Around: Nov–Feb · At its best: Dec–Jan
Around here
New potatoes are lifted before the plant dies back: thin skin, lots of water and little starch, perfect for boiling and roasting whole. The all-year potato is harvested mature, cured and kept in cold storage; it's floury, the one for chips and mash. In Catalonia the potato with a label is the Prades one (Patates de Prades PGI), grown high up in the Prades mountains. In winter, by then the stored kind, it's a must in trinxat from the Cerdanya, with cabbage and pancetta.
At the market
- Thin skin that lifts when you rub it with your thumb: if not, it's an old potato with good PR.
- Firm, with no sprouts or green patches, which taste bitter.
- A bit of soil clinging on is a good sign; washed, shiny ones keep less well.
- For boiling or roasting whole, small and all the same size, so they cook together.
At home
- Somewhere cool, dark and airy, in a paper bag or a basket; never in a sealed plastic bag.
- New potatoes don't last: a week, ten days at most. Stored ones, weeks.
- Away from onions: together, both spoil sooner.
- Don't wash them until you're about to cook them.
If you have too much
- Boiled in their skins they keep two or three days in the fridge: for potato salad or to crisp up in a pan.
- Raw, they don't freeze well: they turn watery. Better to roast a batch and get through it over the week.
- A big tortilla is eaten cold the next day, and it's even better.
In the kitchen
- Spanish omelette (tortilla), with or without onion (that's for another website).
- Boiled in their skins and dressed while hot with oil, salt and parsley.
- Ensaladilla, Spanish potato salad, or a warm salad with tomato and olives.
- Patatas a lo pobre: sliced and slow-fried with pepper and onion.
- Small ones roasted whole in their skins with garlic and rosemary.
- Boiled with green beans and a good glug of oil: a supper as old as the hills.
What it brings
Per 100 g, raw.
- Energy
- 77 kcal
- Water
- 79% water
- Carbs
- 17.5 g
- Sugars
- 0.8 g
- Fibre
- 2.1 g
- Protein
- 2.1 g
Stands out for
- Source of vitamin C19.7 mg · 25% of what you need in a day
- Source of vitamin B60.3 mg · 21% of what you need in a day
- Source of potassium425 mg · 21% of what you need in a day
Data from the USDA (FoodData Central). See the full table ↗ · How we decide what stands out
In the family recipes
- Tortilla de patatas Grandma's
- Patatas a lo pobre Grandma's
- Ensaladilla de patata Grandma's
- Patatas con tomate Grandma's
The recipes are in Spanish.
Goes with
- Green beanJun–SeptIt's the same plant that gives dried beans, only the pod is picked before the beans swell. The test of a good one: it snaps cleanly.
- TomatoJun–OctAn August tomato and a January one only share the colour. And a good tomato's worst enemy isn't winter: it's your fridge.
- Onionall yearIt's around all year because, once dried, it keeps for months. But the freshly pulled summer onion is juicy and sweet, and makes you cry a little less. Only a little.
- PepperJul–OctGreen and red are usually the same pepper at two stages: the red one was left to ripen on the plant. That's why it's sweeter and dearer.