Thursday, September 30, 2010

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Fresh Herbs - Ode to a Tuber, Part 16!


Remember the scene from the movie Castaway when Tom Hanks is finally successful at making a fire on the uninhabited island and he yells with pride "Look what I have created!!"


That is exactly how I felt when I dug up my very first-ever crop of fingerling potatoes from my garden yesterday! This spring, I experimented with Russian Banana fingerling seed potatoes and grew only five plants in a very small area to see what would happen. From those five plants I was able to dig enough potatoes for several meals for my husband and myself.

I'm definitely not recommending you all go out and grow your own potatoes but I found it fun and rewarding. They are a pretty easy vegetable to grow except for mounding the soil over the plants a couple of times after the plants start to grow.


Researching which recipe to try first for my pride and joys resulted in a simple but tasty recipe by Tyler Florence. Fingerling potatoes are tossed with olive oil, fresh herbs, garlic, S&P and roasted in a very hot oven on a preheated baking pan.


The aroma in the kitchen was wonderful and the potatoes especially delicious. I think it was the recipe but it could have had something to do with growing them myself :)


Tyler's original recipe which can be found here didn't mention how to handle the herbs but I decided to remove the herb leaves from the stems and chiffonade the sage. The recipe also says to roast the garlic whole and unpeeled with the potatoes. Rather than removing the roasted garlic from the peels after roasting, I felt that would be easier to peel and chop the garlic cloves before roasting.

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Fresh Herbs
Recipe adapted from Tyler Florence
Printable Recipe

Serves 4

4 cups fingerling potatoes, scrubbed (try to choose potatoes of a similar size, cut large ones in half, if necessary)
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves removed and chopped coarsely
5-6 leaves of fresh sage, cut into thin strips
5-6 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves removed
6 cloves garlic, chopped coarsely or sliced thin
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus for sheet pan
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F and place a baking sheet with sides inside to heat.

Place potatoes, rosemary, sage, thyme, and garlic in a medium-sized bowl. Drizzle with about 1 tablespoon or so of olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Toss with your hands to coat the potatoes with oil. Remove the hot baking pan from oven, lightly coat with olive oil, and pour potatoes onto pan. Place potatoes in oven and reduce heat to 425 degrees F. Roast for 20 minutes, or until crispy on outside and tender on inside. This may take a little longer depending on the size of your potatoes.

34 comments:

  1. Nothing better than cooking something that you grew yourself and these look amazing! Gotta mention your soil-wow, it looks like you know gardening as well as cooking:@)
    PS-The background to my tree is a wall mural I bought at Home Depot "Lake in the Woods", I've enjoyed it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I grew potatoes once w/ Lulu..I was amazed! Never have I thought of Fingerlings..I love the collage..the dish..the whole post..

    I batted a big zero w/ my veggies..my pattypan squash are the only ones that came to fruition..and so few at a time and so small and they don't keep well:(

    Potatoes..sound like winners to me especially yours..

    Lovely Susan..and I loved that song too..Still do.

    ReplyDelete
  3. wow wonderful spuds proud of you for growing them

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lucky you to have home-grown potatoes. I don't seem to do too well growing much of anything...I'll be sticking with the farmer's markets!
    Your fingerling potatoes look delicious! I love how creamy they can be...

    ReplyDelete
  5. We love fingerling potatoes. I am always thrilled when we find them at Costco. I only wish I had the space to grow them.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Susan, you fingerling potatoes are beautiful!!! Home Grown...I am so impressed!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a lovely platter of potatoes you have there. I can't believe you grew them yourself. Quite impressive!

    Sorry to hear you're under the weather too - it's that wonderful time of year. ugh...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Get outta town, YOU GREW THOSE??? How cool is that? They look fantastic, and have to taste even better that they are 100% made by you totally!

    Very impressed!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Your fingerling potatoes look delicious Susan,I love whole post! Oh lucky woman! have a nice weekend dear,kisses....

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love, love, love that you grew your own fingerlings, Susan!
    And absolutely, that's the best way to cook them...I do it all the time. YUM!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Those fingerlings look truly interesting...are they tasty, too? Unique in flavor?

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love adding sage leaves to potatoes. They crisp up and taste delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love adding sage leaves to potatoes. They crisp up and taste delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  14. susan, everyone used to tell me it was crazy to grow potatoes... they were just... potatoes after all. I couldn't disagree more. Homegrown potatoes have more flavor and freshly dug potatoes are divine just the way you prepared them... you got a beautiful crop. My favorites were the purple potatoes... lavender mashed potatoes are the best!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I would LOVE to grow my own potatoes! They're such a staple and would be so handy!

    This recipe sounds delicious. Simple yet satisfying.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I believe that you have this sense of attachment with nature that gives you this great feeling when you grow your own veggies and fruits. Everything cooked with this produce has always a very special taste. The same stands for these potatoes.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thank you for all so much for the comments, everyone, and the support for growing my own potatoes. It was fun for me. I guess I love digging in the dirt!

    Lynn, I thought I was looking out your window in that post ;)

    Monique, you should try fingerlings next year. I'll be the boys would love to help you dig them up in the fall!

    Yes, Carol, indeed I did!

    Vee, they are a little creamier than a regular potato, I think, and they have a thinner skin.

    Thanks again - you are all so kind!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I wish I have a big enough garden to grow my own food too!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Beauties!! I love growing the more specialty type potatoes...fingerlings are are favorite and this recipes looks devine!

    Blessings!
    Gail

    ReplyDelete
  20. I love fingerling potatoes. and you grew them!!! wow they look great

    ReplyDelete
  21. Nothing beats homegrown! I've never tried potatoes. How much space did you have to devote to 5 mounds?


    I love that fingerlings seem to be available pretty much everywhere these days ... not just in the specialty markets.

    Roasted spuds are my favorite by far!

    ReplyDelete
  22. I am so impressed that you grew your own fingerlings! I don't picture you a potato farmer, LOL!
    They look great! I am inspired, me with the failed snow pea crop!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Oh I am so proud of you!! Homegrown fingerling potatoes have a wonderful creamy concentrated flavor that is unrivaled. I'll have to save Tyler Florence's recipes for the next time I do roasted potatoes.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Oh I am so proud of you!! Homegrown fingerling potatoes have a wonderful creamy concentrated flavor that is unrivaled. I'll have to save Tyler Florence's recipes for the next time I do roasted potatoes.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I know, Kathleen, strange but true! At little my mini version of a potato farmer :-)

    Cindy, it was only a 2 x 5 foot area that didn't even get good sunlight. Next year, I may try to double the space.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Beautiful photography, wow! Your homegrown potatoes look fab!

    Great blog; happy I found you!

    Mary xo
    Delightful Bitefuls

    ReplyDelete
  27. Sorry for my english!... your blog is fantastic. I see you again. Ciao. Deborah

    ReplyDelete
  28. Oh, I have always wanted to grow my own potatoes, but we just don't have the soil for it here in our yard. I love fingerlings and these sound great!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Its my first time here and so pleased that I should land on something that you've grown yourself. As a grower myself this excites me. Your fingerling potatoes are real beauties.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Those are such pretty little potatoes that you grew! Roasting them with herbs was the perfect choice here- beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Congrats on your fingerlings! Finally, they are stocking them in our local grocers..takes awhile to reach us!
    Like the simplicity of the recipe..have been roasting all my potatoes lately.

    ReplyDelete
  32. I grew fingerlings this year too...my first year for any potatoes and I have to say it WAS very satisfying to dig them up. There is just something about root vegetables. You never know whats under ground and then you dig them up and TA DA...you have made veggies!

    ReplyDelete
  33. This is my favourite variety of potato. But I do battle to find them, only very occasionally can I find them at a country market, then I buy lots and we make a feast out of them.

    ReplyDelete
  34. There's nothing better than growing something from scratch is there and the end result looks fantastic and DELICIOUS!!!

    ReplyDelete

I appreciate your comment!