Roast Potatoes with Rosemary and Garlic

This is natures answer to the French fry.  Except they're much easier to make and much easier on the body.  I like to smoother them in freshly ground black pepper and Maldon sea salt before and after cooking.  Throwing in some garlic cloves, unpeeled, is a good idea as you can then squeeze out the roasted, caramelized garlic and spread it on the potatoes - Heaven.  

This recipe - not that it's really a recipe as such, can be used with any type of potato. I usually don't peel mine as a little extra fiber is a good thing, unless I'm using a very thick skinned Idaho baking potato.  You can par boil them before roasting to speed up the process but I rarely do. Purists will tell you these should be cooked in extremely hot duck fat, they will be delicious if you do but I don't bother with all that and mine are delicious too, I just roll them around in some room temperature olive oil. Most of the time these are served with some sort of roasted meat (invariably chicken) and they happily sit in the oven while the meat is roasting.

.

Any leftovers can be used in a frittarta the next day.

Roast Potatoes with Garlic and Rosemary.

As many potatoes as you wish, whatever type you wish or have on hand.

Olive oil

Good quality sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Fresh rosemary

Heat the oven to 425F

Wash and dry the potatoes.

Place them on a large baking tray.  Don't over crowd them as they will steam instead of roast if there's too many of them on one tray.  If you have a crowd to feed use 2 baking trays.

Drizzle over a tablespoon or so of olive oil.

Break up a garlic bulb and scatter four or five unpeeled cloves smothered in olive oil onto the baking tray.

Chop up a handful of fresh rosemary and mix in with the potatoes.

Place in the oven and roast for approx 50 minutes to 1 hour depending on the size of the potatoes.  Check every 20 minutes or so and move around so all sides of the potatoes become beautifully browned.

These are best served piping hot from the oven. Just before serving, scatter a little more salt over the top.

My 15 year old (and husband) likes them with ketchup.

content source