This breading preparation starts from a classic combination of our cuisine, that of potatoes, rosemary and adds the inevitable paprika and turmeric for a spicy and spicy touch.
Gratin and breading
Breading (or panare) means covering a food with grated bread (and egg, but some people use milk) and cooking it, a golden crust will form around the dish and crunchy (and delicious). Gratin is a cooking technique which aims to develop a crunchy crust on the surface of the dish being prepared and to maintain a softer and moister core underneath. This is achieved by covering with a layer of breadcrumbs or flour and adding (usually some cheese). The similarities are striking: we want to obtain a crust, we use flour or breadcrumbs but they are not enough on their own, in both cases we add something (milk, cheese or egg). All this because breading, gratinating and many other things in the kitchen depend on a series of chemical processes which go by the name of Maillard reaction (from Louis Camille Maillard, French doctor and chemist), in extreme synthesis it is the reaction between sugars and proteins. This is why in gratinating meat and fish you can actually risk not adding the cheese (i.e. the proteins) which are already present in the food to be cooked (the carbohydrates i.e. the sugars are provided by the breadcrumbs or flour naturally), while in the vegetable gratin you risk getting charred vegetables instead of the succulent crust.
Where to use the potato and rosemary gratin breading
The first use that comes to mind is potato gratin, one of the most loved gratin dishes, declined in many ways depending on what is added to the potatoes and/or the breading, with this gratin preparation you could prepare a quick version that adds only rosemary, paprika and turmeric to the flavor of the potato. However, in the case of other dishes to be gratinated, the addition of strong and traditional flavors for Italian cuisine such as potato and rosemary could satisfy the palate of those looking for strong and genuine flavors rather than experimentation with many exotic spices. A possible use that comes to mind is in the preparation of fish gratins, given that it is quite common in home cooking to bake fish in a pan with potatoes.