4 medium potatoes
3 small tomatoes
1 1/2 tablespoons (dried) oregano
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon (dried) basil (optional)
1/4 teaspoon pepper (optional)

A large pot of water to boil potatoes in

o Boil potatoes.

o Chop garlic.

o Cut tomatoes into chunks.

o When the potatoes are ready, remove peel. Cut into chunks.

o Toss the potatoes (while still hot) with the tomatoes, olive oil and seasoning.

o Serve immediately (while the potatoes are still warm) or at room temperature.

This dish can be served as a salad or a side dish. My late grandmother, Nonna Seppe, offered it to me (alongside stewed sausage) when I visited her in Italy back in 1977. The dish she made was quite delicious, much more so than anything I could ever come up with. The not-so-secret ingredient that made her dish so special was the oregano she used. Back then (and possibly to this day) most home cooks in Molise did not use oregano that they themselves grew in their vegetable gardens, rather they went to the near-by mountain tops and there hand picked the oregano that grew in the wild. That oregano is possibly the best in the world. In any case, home cooks dried the oregano they picked in the wild and then used it year round. Up to the late 1970s my late grandmother, Nonna Seppe, used to send some of that oregano to us in Canada, but after she died, no store-bought oregano ever quite matched what she was kind enough to send via Canada Post. The grocery store, I believe, that presently sells the best oregano in Montreal is called, "Amatol" (6822 St. Laurent Blvd).... Actually, I love this famous Molisani dish, whether the oregano used is top quality or not; the combination of olive oil, tomatoes, potatoes, salt and oregano is a real winner any which way it is dressed up. Photo: Mary Melfi.

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