Italian roasted potatoes is an easy-to-make side dish, possibly the most popular and beloved in Italy. It's the perfect match to any main dish, especially roasted meat or fish. This easy Italian roast potatoes recipe is made with very few ingredients: potatoes, oil, salt, rosemary and garlic!
Delicious, soft on the inside but covered with a mouthwatering toasted crust, these garlic-rosemary scented potatoes are perfect for lunches and dinners on any occasion.Born as an inexpensive dish of the Italian cucina povera, this recipe has become the tastiest, most popular and best-suited side dish for any occasion.
It's really suitable to serve with all kinds of dishes, from the simplest to the most elaborate and refined. For example, oven roasted potatoes are perfect with classic Chicken Cacciatore or Roast Lamb. They are great with fish dishes such as Baked Monkfish with Lemon and Rosemary or Stuffed Calamari.
Classic Italian roasted potatoes is an easy recipe but not a trivial one. In fact, you need to follow a few steps to have perfect roast potatoes.
Follow the step-by-step tips and you will bring to the table a really amazing easy Italian-style roast potatoes!
Ingredients
Prep Time: 20 Min | Cook Time: 40 Min | Servings: 4
- 1 kg (2.2 lb) of potatoes
- 2 or 3 cloves of garlic
- 3 or 4 sprigs of rosemary
- 5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Step 1) - To make Italian roasted potatoes, first you need to wash them to remove any remaining soil.
Then cut the potatoes first in half, lengthwise, and then in half one more time.
Step 2) - From these wedges, cut large pieces of potatoes of about 2 to 3 cm (¾ to 1 inch).
Try to get pieces as equal in size as possible so that they are evenly cooked.
Then put the potatoes in a bowl with cold water for about 15 minutes. This will remove some of the starch.
Step 3) - While the potatoes are soaking, bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Dip the potatoes and boil them for 2 to 3 minutes.
These two steps (soaking in cold water and short boiling) help make the potatoes crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, with a perfect browning.
Finally, drain the potatoes and arrange them in a baking dish. Drizzle evenly with plenty of extra virgin olive oil.
Use a baking dish large enough so that the potatoes do not overlap.
Step 4) - Then add the whole, peeled and lightly crushed garlic cloves. Finally, add the rosemary needles, a little fine salt and some ground black pepper.
Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C (390°F) for about 40 minutes.
While baking, it's a good idea to shake the baking dish several times to stir without breaking them and thus prevent the potatoes from sticking to the bottom.
Now the golden and crispy Italian roasted potatoes are ready!
YOU MUST ALSO TRY:
- Baked Potato Fans with Herb Butter
- Red Potatoes and Green Apples
- Italian Stuffed Artichokes
- Peperonata Recipe| Italian Bell Pepper Stew
Storage
To enjoy their fragrance and crispness, we recommend serving the roasted potatoes hot and freshly made.
Alternatively, store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
Reheat them in the oven or frying pan before serving.
Variations
I have shown you how to make baked roasted potatoes with the classic Italian seasoning of oil, rosemary and garlic. Of course, to have different and tasty roasted potatoes, you can make many variations to the seasoning, adding the herbs and flavors you like best.
The choice of seasoning also often depends on the dish you want to pair with the potatoes. Depending on your taste, you can substitute rosemary for thyme or marjoram. If you do not like garlic, you can simply omit it.
- Pan-Roasted Potatoes: You can also make roasted potatoes cooked in a pan. Cut the potatoes into chunks then put them in a pan with oil, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper. Turn on the heat and cover with a lid. Cook over low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. This way the potatoes stew slowly. When they are cooked, remove the lid, raise to medium heat and roast for about 20 minutes, stirring from time to time.
- Spicy: For example, you can make very spicy roasted potatoes by adding paprika and turmeric or chili powder.
- With Bacon: For a richer dish, many add thin slices of bacon and some onion, which will become crispy along with the potatoes during cooking.
- With Breadcrumbs: A popular variation used to increase the crispiness of potatoes is the addition of breadcrumbs. We call this variation "Patate Sabbiose" (Sandy Potatoes). Once seasoned and flavored, the potatoes are tossed in breadcrumbs, which gives precisely the "sandy" effect, and then baked in the oven. The breadcrumbs toast as the potatoes roast. A delight! Some people also combine the breadcrumbs with a little grated Parmigiano cheese to give them more flavor.
- With Butter: A variation popular especially in northern Italy is the use of melted butter instead of oil. This makes the dish a bit richer and more caloric, but the sweetness of the butter gives the plate a unique flavor and makes it suitable as a side dish even for elegant and refined main courses.
Tips
Perfect baked potatoes depend on many factors, but just follow some very simple steps to get the best result.
The Best Potatoes for Baking
First of all, you need to choose the right potatoes.
Starchy potatoes are best suited for baking if you want soft potatoes. Their high starch content makes them soft and absorbent during heating.
For our recipe, however, you want to get the crispy effect, so firm, compact potatoes with a low starch content are more suitable.
the yellow potatoes are best suited in this case.
They are more compact and less starchy than white ones. White potatoes are in fact more floury and fluffy, and break down more easily.
In addition, to further reduce the amount of starch, we recommend to soak them in cold water before cooking and then dip for a very few minutes in boiling water.
How to Roast Potatoes in the Oven
For optimal roasting in the oven, we recommend to cut the potatoes evenly. This way they are all similar in shape and size and bake uniformly.
Also take care to use a sufficiently large baking dish so that the potatoes do not overlap each other.
It's helpful to put the potatoes in a preheated oven at 200°C (390°F) and not stir them for the first 10 minutes of baking.
After about 10 minutes, stir to get them more evenly cooked and to check that they do not stick to the bottom. We recommend not using a spoon but shaking the baking dish to avoid breaking them.
Skin On Roasted Potatoes. Warning about the Skins!
To give your dish a more rustic and original look, you can cook baked potatoes with the skin on!
Potato skins, besides being very good, are rich in iron and vitamins.
Of course, you need to pay attention to many factors.
First of all, make sure that the potatoes are organic and therefore free of chemicals that obviously concentrate on the skin.
In any case, also wash them thoroughly to remove any soil residue.
There is also another aspect to consider. Solanine, a substance that can be harmful, often develops in the skin of potatoes.
Solanine develops in old and poorly stored potatoes and is concentrated in the green parts of the skin and in the sprouts.
So it is okay to eat the whole potato, but it must have been harvested no more than 3 months ago, have no green, black parts or sprouts, and, of course, be organically produced.
Recipe Card
Easy Italian Roasted Potatoes Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 kg potatoes 2.2 pounds
- 3 garlic cloves
- 4 rosemary sprigs
- 5 tablespoons olive oil extra virgin
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
Instructions
- Wash and cut the potatoes first in half, lengthwise, and then in half one more time. From these wedges, cut large pieces of potatoes of about 2 to 3 cm (¾ to 1 inch). Try to get pieces as equal in size as possible so that they are evenly cooked.
- Then put the potatoes in a bowl with cold water for about 15 minutes. This will remove some of the starch.
- While the potatoes are soaking, bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Dip the potatoes and boil them for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Drain the potatoes and arrange them in a baking dish.
- Drizzle evenly with plenty of extra virgin olive oil. Use a baking dish large enough so that the potatoes do not overlap.
- Add the whole, peeled and lightly crushed garlic cloves. Finally, add the rosemary needles, a little fine salt and some ground black pepper.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C (390°F) for about 40 minutes.
- While baking, it's a good idea to shake the baking dish several times to stir without breaking them and thus prevent the potatoes from sticking to the bottom.
Leave a Reply