German Potato Salad in a Belgrade Refrigerator

One of my favorite things to do is to turn misfit items in the refrigerator into something delicious. Half the time it turns into something delicious, though sometimes it doesn't go so well, and others it produces results that can best be described as "interesting." Nevertheless. I don't care; I love it.

I had about ten small to midsize potatoes in the fridge, as well as 4 strips of pancetta and a spring onion that, if it didn't get used this weekend, was getting binned, as the Economist would say.

So I thought of German potato salad. I found a good recipe on Epicurious, and modified it to fit what I had on hand.  Here is the original recipe. My extra crispy version is below. I will say that the pancetta didn't leave enough fat for frying the onions, and 2 or 3 more slices would have made it even better. But that would have required a trip to the market and violated the rules of the game.

German Potato Salad in a Belgrade Refrigerator

Cut 8 potatoes into bite size pieces and boil until done. While the potatoes are cooking, fry 4 slices pancetta. While the bacon is cooking, combine 1/2 cup white vinegar, 1/2 cup water, 2 tsp mustard, 2 tsp sugar, 2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp. pepper. Take bacon out of the pan and set on a paper towel. Add a pat of butter to pan and saute onion for 5 minutes over medium heat.

Add vinegar mixture to pan and cook until reduced by half. Remove from heat. Add potatoes and let sit until mixture is warm, but not hot (it was 10 mins for me). Top with crumbled bacon and one spring onion, chopped. Season with salt and pepper. Admire clean fridge.