With Peter being in Malta for four weeks, I suddenly was challenged to cook for only one. How long has it been since I had to do that? (Well, actually not so long. I remember a lovely dinner for one I had one time Peter was away in Frankfurt for a few days, but still.)
I was kind of confused at the supermarket and suddenly couldn’t decide what to buy. For some reason, those tiny potatoes caught my eyes. They looked cute and lovely and just perfect for my dinner for one. I hardly ever buy potatoes, usually I just get some when I have a recipe calling for them, so I don’t have a lot of potato experience. But nevertheless I decided to go crazy and just figure out what to do with them later at home.
You can’t go wrong with cute little potatoes, can you? I think I even might have had a little crush there.
What I had in mind was roasted potatoes, probably with garlic and a side of green salad and tomatoes. Tonight I got out Nigella Lawson’s How To Eat for some great tips of this domestic goddess. There was a recipe for roasted poatoes with garlic infused oil and herbs which I adapted to my taste (and what I had in the pantry). The result was better than I thought. Dessert will be a slice of the tarte tatin I made last night. So, all is well so far.
Roasted Potatoes
8 to 10 small potatoes
1/4 onion
2 garlic cloves (unpeeled)
1 tablespoon fancy (as in good) oil (I used this great nut oil we bought in France last year)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
coarse salt
ground black pepper
Note: just adapt everything to taste. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t use rosemary instead or in addition to thyme. You also don’t have to go out and buy coarse salt if you don’t have any. All measurements are merely suggestions, so I strongly recommend you go ahead and just toy around with what you have.
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Cut the potatoes in two or three pieces, depending on the size. Roughly chop the onion and put the potatoes, onion and unpeeled garlic cloves in a small bowl. Add the oil, herbs, salt and pepper and toss to cover everything.
Spread the potatoes on a baking tray and let roast in the oven for about 45 to 60 minutes. Mine were done after a rough 45 minutes, but Nigella’s recipe said 60 minutes, so I guess it depends on the size of your chunks or maybe the kind of potato you used. It also might depend on how hungry and impatient you are.
Get the potatoes out of the oven, discard the garlic cloves and serve along with some salads or whatever you like. I imagine those roasted potatoes make a good side dish, too.
Serves 1