Potatoes are one of those transcendental ingredients that everyone can get on board with. Originally from the Americas, they took Europe by storm and then made their way into Asia, Africa and pretty much every corner of the globe. In the UK, we may think of them in terms of how they’re cooked – boiled, mashed, fried, roasted – but other countries champion them as a vegetable that’s the star of the show.

The following dishes are simple to recreate at home, put the potato centre stage and show just how versatile it is. Go on a world tour from the comfort of your kitchen and never think of a potato as ‘humble’ ever again.

Think you know all the ways you can cook a potato? Think again. These little baby potatoes are cooked in seriously salty water – traditionally it would’ve been actual seawater – until the water completely evaporates, leaving behind a salty crust and wrinkled skin (‘arrugadas’ means ‘wrinkled’). Soft in the middle and deeply seasoned, they’re then served with a duo of sauces – one red and fiery (mojo rojo), the other green and fresh (mojo verde).

Potatoes are treated more like a vegetable than a carb in India, which is why you often see them paired up with bread and rice. These little spheres, however, champion the potato as a hero in its own right. Mashed with fragrant mustard seeds, curry leaves, turmeric and chilli, the mixture is rolled into balls, coated in a chickpea flour batter and deep-fried until crisp. Originally from Maharashtra in western India but now a staple of the country’s street food scene, they are delicious dunked into a fiery, fresh coriander chutney.

Korean cuisine is filled with dozens of varieties of banchan – side dishes – and this potato banchan is one of the most popular. Potatoes are cooked in plenty of soy sauce, garlic, sugar and sesame oil, which reduces to a sticky glaze during the process. The result is a fudgy, incredibly moreish finish that walks that tightrope between sweet and salty.

A potato sandwich sounds a bit odd to a British palate, until you realise the chip butty is a cornerstone of our cuisine! Denmark’s answer to it is this lighter open-faced rye bread sandwich, layered with slices of boiled potato, plenty of mayonnaise, onion and herbs. It’s traditionally enjoyed during the summer months, when Danish potatoes are at their best – but we think it’s brilliant year-round.

A French classic, this simple technique of baking finely sliced potatoes, onions and thyme in plenty of stock and butter until they’re crisp on top and soft underneath is the ultimate in comfort food. The perfect side to a roast, it’s one of those dishes that often steals the show at the dinner table.

Potatoes on pizza is actually a delicacy that’s been enjoyed in Rome for decades, where the pizzas are rectangular and more like the focaccias we love in the UK. The thin slices of potato turn golden – almost like thick-cut crisps – in the oven as the base cooks, with rosemary adding aromatic fragrance (alongside plenty of olive oil).

This Basque fish stew is one of those dishes that was once only eaten by poor fishermen – but is now the height of luxury. A combination of fresh tuna, potatoes and peppers cooked in a garlicky tomato sauce, the real secret to making this stew sing is by ‘breaking’ the potatoes apart instead of chopping them. This allows more of their starch to be released, thickening the sauce and giving it its classic texture.