The Glorious Fourth

As you might expect, the 4th of July is not a holiday in Italy. My friends get really mixed up about whether it is Thanksgiving or some other celebration. I am going to an annual party given by my friends down south, and I’ve been asked three times this week whether we are having turkey. That’s okay. I bet you don’t know what Italians eat for Christmas, either. Unless you, too, are an expat in Italy.

I don’t know for sure what we are having. It’s always some kind of cook out, which wasn’t the way Mainers did the 4th when I was a kid.  Actually, I think they had discovered fire back then, but hadn’t thought of putting it into a metal pan and burning meat over it. The hosts are Texans and it appears that Texans all know how to burn meat outdoors. I think Mainers have learned the tricks as well by now, but they will never be famous for it like the Westerners are. Have you yet had that image of cowboys sitting around a campfire at night pop into your head? I have, and even though they are not eating burned cow in my image, I know they have just finished some.

My dish– because we all bring one– is potato salad. This is my first year to bring potato salad. Last year I made cobblers at the party. This is easier. I’m making about fifteen pounds of it, so I am not making just one kind, but three. The first one will be my version of straight up, all-American potato salad pretty much like my mom and maybe yours always made. It contains no nasty sugar, like so many purchased potato salads do, it has lots of crunchy things in it and it definitely has both eggs and mayonnaise in it. That’s in the Constitution, you know, so anything that doesn’t have those things is foreign. We in America like foreign food, but we do need to be clear about which dishes are ours and which are someone else’s.

Yesterday I cooked the hard-cooked eggs, peeled them and put them in the fridge in a plastic bag. I’d intended to also cut the scallions up and slice two red peppers, but I didn’t do it. It was hot as Hades and I worked in the garden for a long time. I was too wrung out to make perfect little thin slices of anything, and big clumsy pieces don’t belong in any version of potato salad.

You should make this the morning of the day you will eat it at dinner, or the day before.  It’s much better given some time to meld a bit.  The first half of my potatoes is already cooked and cooling enough to handle. I should be doing all those other little chores, but as you can see, I am wasting my time on the internet. Blame Al Gore.

Old Fashioned New England Style Potato Salad

Makes 5+-6 pounds and will serve from 12 to 20 people

• 4-5 pounds/2+ kilos potatoes, peeled and chunked

• 12 eggs, hard-cooked
• .5 cup/125 ml finely cut spring onion or scallion, all good parts green and white
• 1 cup/250 ml very finely sliced celery
• a small bunch of parsley, minced, or about 1/3 cup
• .5 cup/125 ml vinaigrette salad dressing
• 2 cups/500 ml mayonnaise
• .5 cup/125 ml prepared mustard
• 2 teaspoons celery seed
• .25 to .5 teaspoon black pepper
• salt to taste

Cook the potatoes in salted water until just done.  Donì’t overcook them or they’ll fall apart and be mashed potato salad.  When a cooking fork enters easily, take them off the flame and drain them.  Allow to cool until you can safely handle them, but be sure they are still warm.  Place them in a very large mixing bowl or pot.  Pour the vinaigrette over the potatoes and leave them alone.

Add the onion/scallions and the celery on top and leave them while you mix the dressing.

Put the mayonnaise into a smaller bowl and add the mustard, the celery seed and the parsley.  Mix it up well.  Scrape that onto the vegetables and mix well.

Slice or chunk the boiled eggs over the potato salad, toss to distribute them.  Taste for salt and correct.  Grind pepper over all.  Remember that both potatoes and eggs love pepper, so be generous.  Toss again.

I then spoon this into a Ziplock plastic bag to put in my refrigerator until serving time, but that’s because my refrigerator is small and I don’t have room for several potato salad containers otherwise.  You can chill it however it works for you.

When it is time to serve it, I will lay clean lettuce leaves around the edges of a large serving platter.  I’ll pile the potato salad on top of them, leaving a border,  and decorate it with some thinly sliced egg, some thinly sliced onion and a sprinkle of either very finely minced parsley or of paprika.  (those philistines kept throwing my garnishes around) My mother aways used paprika, and I don’t know why.  Surely no one thinks potato salad should be red?  You can’t really taste it, either, so it has to be based on my mother’s aesthetic sense, which was considerable.  But I will probably use parsley anyway, because when possible, I like to garnish with ingredients so people know what’s in there. If I get time, I’ll take a photo of when it is ready at the party and add it in when I get back home. (nb there was no way, no time for shooting pix of food!)

You would be even more popular if you garnished with deviled egg halves, and invited me, of course.

If picnicking far away, keep this chilled.  It’s safe without refrigeration for almost 2 hours, once plated for serving, but’s nice if you can keep it cool– not chilled, but cool.

In the winter I sometimes make this of a single potato and a single egg and that’s a meal for me with a bit of lettuce, but of course, good old potato salad was born to go to picnics wherever you are, and the 4th of July is the biggest picnic of all.

Have a great 4th!