Wrinkled Potatoes, Canary Island Style (c)2011 LaDomestique.com

1.  Wrinkled Potatoes, Canary Island Style

If you flip through Made in Spain, by José Andrés, you’ll find a recipe for Wrinkled Potatoes, Canary Island Style that I’ve cooked here. I could go for these instead of french fries any day. The small potatoes (in their skins) are boiled in very salty water. Once tender, pour out most of the water and continue cooking the potatoes until the salt covering them crystallizes. Serve the potatoes with traditional mojo sauce.

2.  Sister Frances’ Potatoes

The Canal House ladies share a recipe for Sister Frances’ Potatoes in Canal House Cooking Volume 2 that involves poaching peeled, cubed russet potatoes in butter and half-and-half. Topped with freshly ground pepper and chives, it looks like the perfect comfort food. They write, “The preparation is simple and the finished dish elegant and delicious.” Remember what Julia Child said, “If you’re afraid of butter, just use cream.”

3.  Rosti

Martha Stewart includes a recipe for Herbed Rosti with Wild Mushrooms in her cookbook, Martha Stewart’s Cooking School. A rosti is a Swiss potato cake which she makes by grating potatoes and pressing them into a hot oiled skillet with leeks and herbs. Simply invert the potato cake and finish cooking in the oven. The potato cake is topped with sautéed mushrooms and goat cheese. Looks like an easy weeknight supper to me!

4.  Tortilla

I’m not talking about the Mexican corn or flour tortillas used for soft tacos. In Spain, the tortilla is a classic recipe for a potato and onion omelette. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall makes one in The River Cottage Cookbook because it’s an “alcohol sponge.” I agree that this hearty dish is perfect hangover food. The basic recipe for a tortilla calls for parboiled potatoes to be sliced and sautéed in a hot skillet. Pour beaten eggs over the potatoes and cook until the omelette is set and invert it on a plate to cook the other side. The tortilla is a great opportunity for seasonal inspiration. Hugh tosses in spinach from the garden, but you could try any herbs of veg you have handy. Have fun!

5.  Perfect Roast Potatoes

I’m married to a true Irishman, and roast potatoes are a big deal in our house. Perfect roast potatoes are crispy and golden-brown on the outside, soft and tender on the inside. Darina Allen has a section of tips with her recipe for roast potatoes in Forgotten Skills of Cooking. She uses Yukon Golds, peeled and meticulously dried with a towel. Toss the potatoes with oil (or duck fat) and roast in a 450 degree fahrenheit oven until tender. This recipe from Jean Georges Vongerichten’s visit to the Martha Stewart Show looks like one method to try as well.

6.  Potato Focacia

The Tartine Bread cookbook includes a recipe for Potato Focacia that seems perfect for fall. Potatoes are sliced thin, salted, and squeezed of all their liquid. Then they are tossed with olive oil and thyme, scattered over bread dough, and baked until crisp. Once the bread is out of the oven, shave pecorino slices over the top and serve with a salad and concord grapes. The September issue of Food & Wine Magazine has a recipe for Two-Potato Flatbread with Olives and Feta that looks delicious as well.

7.  Mashed Potatoes

In Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch, Nigel Slater shares 7 versions of mashed potatoes. He writes, “The perfect mashed potato is one that manages to be both fluffy and buttery at the same time.” His chapter on potatoes gives all the tips you need to make a perfect mash. The recipes include A lovely soft mash with milk and bay, Mustard & Parsley Mash, Wasabi Mash, Garlic Mash, Parmesan and Olive Oil Mash, and A Soft Mash with Cream and Parsley. Definitely worth a read.

8.  Galette

My favorite way to prepare potatoes is the impressive but easy Pommes Anna. Though it’s been around a long time, I first discovered this potato galette in Canal House Cooking Volume 2. Pommes Anna is a simple dish made by layering thinly sliced potato circles into a skillet and sautéing the potato cake in butter until it’s crisp golden brown on the outside and soft on the inside. Martha Stewart has a recipe for Potato Galette here as well.

 9.  Gnocchi

Gnocchi is an Italian potato dumpling- the ultimate comfort food. The dough is simply made with pantry ingredients: russet potatoes, cheese, an egg, and all-purpose flour. Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo spent a lot of time developing their potato gnocchi recipe according to the exacting method of Falcinelli’s Italian grandmother. You can find their recipe in The Frankies Spuntino Kitchen Companion and Cooking Manual. Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Sage from Saveur looks amazing as well.

10.  Potato Salad

Trust me, it’s not too late to enjoy potato salad. My all time favorite recipe is from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. Ina Garten’s French Potato Salad dresses small boiled potatoes (I like to use small fingerlings) with Dijon vinaigrette and plenty of fresh herbs. I think the trick is that after the potatoes are boiled they are tossed with a splash of chicken stock and allowed to sit in the pot and steam for a few minutes. This makes for an especially tender, luscious potato. I cannot express how much I love this recipe!

What is your favorite way to cook with potatoes? Let me know in the comments section. Click Here.