Recipe: Stuffed baked potatoes with spinach and Gorgonzola can be a main course or side dish

Even in my early childhood, I had a passion for twice-baked potatoes. The texture contrast of the crunchy skin and the soft mash fueled my hunger. Cheese and cream, along with butter and salt, added to my pleasure.

In Yotam Ottolenghi’s newest cookbook “Ottolenghi Simple” (Ten Speed Press, $35), the author gives a stuffed potato recipe with a delicious twist. He uses Gorgonzola blue cheese and augments the mix with leaves of baby spinach. They can be a meal unto themselves or served alongside grilled meat or poultry as a side dish.

If blue cheese isn’t to your liking, a different cheese of your choice can be used (grated if firm, crumbled if soft). In my kitchen I often have plenty of leafy greens and have successfully substituted stemmed and chopped Tuscan kale for the spinach.

Spinach and Gorgonzola Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Yield: 2 servings as a main course, 4 as a side dish

INGREDIENTS

2 large russet potatoes

1 1/2 tablespoons butter, divided use

3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

2 ounces Gorgonzola cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

7 ounces baby spinach leaves

2 tablespoons lightly toasted coarsely chopped or broken walnuts, see cook’s notes

Cook’s notes: Instead of walnuts, I often use coarsely chopped roasted and salted mixed nuts.

PROCEDURE

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; preheat to 450 degrees. Wash and dry potatoes. Poke a few times with a fork and place on parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Bake for about 65 minutes, or until flesh is soft all the way through when tested with a pointed knife or fork. Remove from oven. When cool enough to handle, cut potatoes in half lengthwise. Scoop the flesh out into medium bowl, setting the skins on sheet for later. Roughly mash along with 1 tablespoon butter, cream, Gorgonzola and 1/2 teaspoon salt; set aside.

2. Divide remaining 1/2 tablespoon butter inside potato skins. Sprinkle generously with salt and return to oven for 8 minutes for skin to become crisp.

3. Meanwhile, place a medium saucepan, halfway filled with salted water on high heat. Once boiling, add spinach for about 15 seconds, just to wilt. Drain spinach, squeezing out as much of the water as possible. (If you use Tuscan kale, it will need about 1 minute of cooking.) Stir spinach into potato mixture. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.

4. Pile mixture into potato skins. Bake 15 minutes, until top of the mash is crisp and browned. Remove from oven and sprinkle with nuts.