As I type this I realise that many of you are probably in the festive mood already, in preparation for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I hope your family and friend gatherings bring your souls a lot of comfort and joy, especially after another weird year of semi-isolation that we’ve just had. For us, Europeans, Thanksgiving is the point where we start vaguely pondering about the specifics of Xmas. Both occasions are an excuse to eat a lot of delicious food in good company so that’s something I can totally get behind.
On that note, I have a quick (yet delicious) side dish for you today, which can totally be made at the last minute. Both Duncan and I have been going through a bit of a potato phase lately and we cannot get enough of these crisped up beauties so I thought I would share this simple dish. I am not sure who first came up with this idea to smash and bake last night’s potatoes, but it’s genius. These smashed potatoes are delightfully fluffy inside but with some significantly crisp rough edges, which I find it impossible to say ‘NO’ to ever, no matter how full I am. In fact, eating too many of these has been a bit of a problem lately and I seem to be slow to learn from my mistakes 😉 … I paired these golden beauties with a simple sage pesto-style sauce that comes together in seconds and its herbal, garlicky and lemony notes really work with crispy and fluffy tatties (that’s what Scots call them, how cute does that sound?!) If sage isn’t your thing or you would rather pare the preparation involved down even more, simply sauté some very finely chopped garlic in olive oil and use it to season and lubricate your potatoes. Whatever you do, don’t miss out on these beauties as they are too good to pass up.
20 g / ¾ oz sage, leaves picked 6 g / ¼ oz (2 sprigs) rosemary, leaves picked 30 g / 1/3 cup roasted (ideally) walnuts 1 unwaxed lemon, zest + 20 ml / 4 tsp lemon juice 1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional) 1 large garlic clove, peeled salt and pepper, to taste 120 ml / ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
