AUBERGINE & PEPPER POTATO CAKE

For those of you who are in Italy, the inspiration for this recipe came from some potato cakes featured in the September edition of Alice Cucina.  However,  I did my own thing with it, as follows:

Boil 500 gr  peeled,  sliced potatoes in salted water until soft enough to mash.  Meanwhile, slice an aubergine as thinly as you can and cut the slices into strips.  Cook these in olive oil until soft and drain the slices on kitchen paper. Chop half a red pepper and slice 150 gr provolone cheese thinly.  Drain the potatoes and mash with as much butter as it takes to get a dreamily soft mash. [After many fights with a potato ricer, I now use my hand mixer for this.]  Add 150 gr grated ragusano, parmesan or grana cheese to the mash and mix well.  Now oil a not too shallow flan dish or ovenproof mould - I must say I have become a fan of the bendy silicone ones - and sprinkle pangrattato or breadcrumbs over the base. Spread about half the mash over, then arrange the aubergine slices on top and season them.  Now add the cheese slices and sprinkle the chopped pepper on top of these.  Cut up a couple of slices of cooked ham and add these, together with a few torn basil leaves and then spread the rest of the potato mixture over.  Level it with a palette knife.  Pour 2 tablesp olive oil over the top and cook at 180 C for about 45 mins.  Remove from the oven and leave for about half an hour, then unmould the cake:  the only way is to take a deep breath, quickly dump it top-down onto a plate and then put another plate on the base, pray and flip it back over.  It may not come out perfectly but you can shove any runny bits from the side back in with a fish slice.

Serve with salad and enjoy.  [It's good cold, too.]