Crispy Parmesan Potatoes

Like tater tots but... better

IT’S FINALLY FRIDAY! There’s nothing I love more than starting every email I send today with “Happy Friday!” and ending it with “Have a great weekend!”. It just adds some zest to the anxiety-inducing ping I’m inevitably prompting on someone’s computer. It’s like “oh, you also dread every single day of the week and rediscover your will to live on Friday afternoon? Same!”, ya know? Just me? Whatever - at least I get to have a martini tonight.

This week’s recipe lacks a cutesy little backstory like most of my other posts, but hey, not every song is going to be a #1 hit, am I right? Unless you’re Taylor Swift, in which case you can do no wrong. Regardless, these potatoes wow a crowd every single time. And they’re insanely easy! They require a few extra steps and a little bit of a lengthy cooking time - which only means more time for cocktails and gossip!

This recipe is an adaptation of an Ina recipe (of course) that was actually given to her by Emily Blunt (what can’t she do?). Her recipe leaves a little bit more room for error, and a lot more room for personal injury. It involves heating oil on a sheet pan in the oven until it’s hot enough to burn through your soul and then splashing potatoes onto it - definitely a unique method but one that I could never quite seem to master.

This is one of those recipes that you make because it’s easy to cook for a crowd and relatively simple, and then you end up shocked that everyone wants the recipe. I don’t think I’ve ever made these and not been asked for the recipe. Everyone loves potatoes, and everyone most definitely loves fried food. Except these aren’t even truly fried, so you can consider them healthy! Potatoes are a vegetable, right? Does that mean vodka is considered a vegetable too?

The recipe involves boiling the potatoes and then letting them cool and dry out on a baking rack. I urge you not to skip or rush this step. The drying process allows the potatoes to get crunchy once they’re in the oven instead of turning soggy. The recipe also calls for a quarter cup of olive oil. It might seem like a lot, but that’s what helps contribute to the crunchiness that tricks you into thinking the potatoes are fried. I’d also like to briefly rant about pepper measurements. If you’re using freshly cracked black pepper (and you should be - the other stuff is gross), is anyone really measuring it? How do you measure black specks freefalling from a relatively large circumference? I put measurements in here just so you have a rough estimate, but let it be known that I have never once measured my freshly cracked pepper, sue me.

If you’re feeding a larger crowd, you can always double or triple the recipe (and there will still be zero leftovers).

Crispy Parmesan Potatoes

• 2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes

• ¼ cup olive oil

• 1 tsp. kosher salt

• ½ tsp. pepper

• Freshly grated parmesan

• Chopped parsley

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Start by peeling your potatoes and dicing them into 1 inch cubes. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the potatoes. Boil until fork tender - about 10-15 minutes. Drain the potatoes and add them back into the empty pot. Shake the pot for ~30 seconds to rough up the edges of the potatoes and cook off some the residual moisture.

Put the potatoes on a baking rack and allow them to dry out for at least 20 minutes, or as long as you have time for. Toss them on a baking sheet with the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Bake for 40-45 minutes (or until golden and crunchy)¹, tossing halfway through. Once out of the oven, toss with the freshly grated parmesan and parsley.

1. If you’re pressed for time, bake for 20 minutes and then broil them - but watch them VERY closely (assuming you want to avoid potatoes that closely resemble coal).