Name: Roasted Potatoes
Total time: 1 h
Ingredients: 2 pounds Red Bliss potatoes or other low-starch potatoes, scrubbed clean, dried, halved, and cut into 3/4-inch wedges; 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil; Salt and ground black pepper

Time

1 hour

Yield

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 pounds Red Bliss potatoes or other low-starch potatoes, scrubbed clean, dried, halved, and cut into ¾-inch wedges

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and ground black pepper

Test Kitchen Techniques

Ingredients

2 pounds Red Bliss potatoes or other low-starch potatoes, scrubbed clean, dried, halved, and cut into ¾-inch wedges

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and ground black pepper

Test Kitchen Techniques

Ingredients

2 pounds Red Bliss potatoes or other low-starch potatoes, scrubbed clean, dried, halved, and cut into ¾-inch wedges

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and ground black pepper

Test Kitchen Techniques

Why This Recipe Works

To arrive at our ideal roast potatoes recipe—potatoes that were crisp and deep golden brown on the outside, with moist, velvety, dense interior flesh—we wound up choosing a waxy potato such as Red Bliss, which is better able to retain moisture than classic baking, or high-starch, potatoes. Covering the potatoes with foil for part of their roasting time helped cut the cooking time in our roasted potatoes recipe (and keep the potatoes moist); this let the potatoes steam in their own moisture. Olive oil, with its higher smoke point, was better able than butter to tolerate the high temperature (425 degrees) at which we were roasting the potatoes.

Before You Begin

To roast more than two pounds of potatoes at once, use a second pan rather than crowding the first. If your potatoes are small, like new potatoes, cut them in halves instead of wedges and turn them cut-side up during the final ten minutes of roasting.

Instructions

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Toss potatoes and olive oil in medium bowl to coat; season generously with salt and pepper and toss again to blend.

Place potatoes flesh side down, in a single layer, on shallow roasting pan; cover tightly with aluminum foil and cook about 20 minutes. Remove foil; roast until side of potato touching pan is crusty golden brown, about 15 minutes more. Remove pan from oven and carefully turn potatoes over using metal spatula. (Press spatula against metal as it slides under potatoes to protect crusts.) Return pan to oven and roast until side of potato now touching pan is crusty golden brown and skins have raisin-like wrinkles, 5 to 10 minutes more. Remove from oven, transfer potatoes to serving dish (again, using metal spatula and extra care not to rip crusts), and serve warm.