Patate al Forno con Rosmarino
Every table in this restaurant gets a plate of these without anyone having to ask, the same way bread shows up whether or not you ordered it. Nobody has ever sent a plate back.
Ingredients
- 1kg potatoes, cut into wedges
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, smashed
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- Fine sea salt and black pepper
Serves 4–6.
Cookware Required
- una teglia da forno (a baking sheet)
Method
Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F). Toss the potato wedges with the olive oil, garlic, rosemary, salt, and pepper, making sure every piece is well coated.
Spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet, cut side down where possible, with space between each piece -- crowd the pan, and they'll steam instead of roast.
Roast for thirty-five to forty-five minutes, turning once partway through, until deeply golden and crisp at the edges and tender all the way through.
Quando Va Storto
If the potatoes come out soft and pale instead of crisp, they were crowded on the pan and steamed rather than roasted; give them more room next time, even if it means using two pans. If they're crisp outside but still firm in the center, the oven wasn't hot enough, or the wedges were cut too large for the time given. And if the garlic tastes bitter, it sat too close to direct heat for too long; smashed whole cloves are more forgiving than minced, but they can still burn if the oven runs hot.
Una Storia dalla Sala
A guest, expecting french fries for reasons nobody in the kitchen was ever able to reconstruct, became genuinely furious when a plate of rosemary-roasted potato wedges arrived instead, and demanded a refund on the spot. My father offered, reasonably, to explain the actual dish and why it had been served, which -- for reasons that remain equally unclear -- only made the man angrier.
My father refunded the potatoes rather than continue a conversation that was clearly never going to end anywhere useful. Some arguments, he says, simply aren't worth the ingredients it would take to win them.