Fresh parsley and garlic turn small potatoes into a stellar side. Recipe below.
Parsley has long been the Rodney Dangerfield of herbs, getting little or no respect. For years [in America, at least], it was always curly and its only role was as a look-but-don’t-eat garnish on dinner plates at restaurants just slightly above diners on the food chain—social climbers that fancied themselves “fine dining” establishments. The irony, of course, is that places that use the term “fine dining” are as much about fine dining as people who use the term “classy” have class.
Lately, though, parsley has come into its own as a legitimate herb, especially with the increased availability of the more strongly flavored Italian or flat-leaf variety. Still, parsley doesn’t even appear on the radar screens of many cooks when they’re thinking of herbs, and that’s too bad. To me, parsley has a wonderfully fresh flavor that brings a lot to the party in a wide variety of dishes. It also has a slight peppery taste, not unlike arugula. And it’s the perfect foil for big flavors like garlic—think shrimp scampi.
For all these reasons, I thought I’d do something with parsley for Weekend Herb Blogging. Hosted this week by Sher over at What Did You Eat?, it was started a year ago [that’s seven years ago in blog years] by Kalyn over at Kalyn’s Kitchen. Be sure to check out Sher’s Round-up of WHB Sunday evening or Monday [whenever she gets them all reviewed and posted].
Skillet Roasted Potatoes with Parsley
Serves 2 to 3 [can be doubled—see Kitchen Notes]
1 pound small red new potatoes
salt, freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons Italian parsley leaves, chopped [see Kitchen Notes]
Put whole, unpeeled potatoes in a pot and cover with cold, salted water by an inch. Bring to a boil and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes, or just until potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife. Drain potatoes and cool until you can handle them, then slice them into halves.
Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat for about 90 seconds or until rim of pan is hot to touch. Season potatoes with salt and pepper as pan heats. Add oil and heat until it is just shimmering, then place potatoes cut side down in a single layer in the pan. Let them cook undisturbed until cut sides are golden and crusted, about 5 minutes.
Add garlic to skillet and let it cook until fragrant, 30 seconds or so. Turn off heat and stir and toss potatoes to coat with oil and distribute the garlic. Transfer to serving bowl and toss with parsley.
Kitchen Notes
Doubling the recipe. No big adjustments here. You can either use two skillets or brown the potatoes in two batches if they won’t squeeze into one pan.
Chopped Parsley. Don’t chop it to death. I usually just do a quick chiffonade, wadding the leaves into a tight ball, then cutting it in the thinnest parallel slices possible. This creates slender little ribbons that mix nicely with food and look good. In theory, anyway. Mine isn’t always that uniformly neat. But just cut it once—otherwise it ends up looking like chewed grass. And sure, some leaves will escape the tight little ball. Feel free to hack those to pieces.
Flat or curly? Apparently, curly parsley is the more popular of the two in sales, which absolutely stuns me. Mainly because when recipes call for parsley, they almost invariably call for the flat-leaf variety. Yes, you can use curly parsley with this dish. My main beef with it is that the stiffer leaves with their serrated edges give it a more aggressive mouth feel. This works fine in a busy chopped salad, adding to the overall textural interest. But with something like these potatoes, it’s the parsley equivalent of shouting, “Hey! Look at me, look at me!”
Also this week in Blue Kitchen
On the town. Catch a little music and history at legendary Chicago jazz club The Green Mill at What’s on the kitchen boombox?
A lovely basic recipe, and a good reminder that parsley lends a fresh flavor (as well as color) to many dishes. I can only imagine that curly parsley is the best seller because it’s used as garnish on every salad bar and hotel buffet in the world!
Terry,
I’m stunned by the golden color of these potatoes – it looks absolutely divine! And what a wonderful side dish – in my head I’m already pairing it with beef, pork (for João) and chicken, fish (for me).
These potatoes would be a hit in a Brazilian barbecue as well – look at me, 9:40am and dreaming of having lunch with these beauties.
For a recipe like this, the sky is the limit.
yum yum yum! these look so wonderful. so simple yet so much flavor. i can’t wait to make this. i NEVER eat potatoes and yet I have two in my fridge this moment! now i finally know what to do with the little bugger.
I always have parsley on hand to add to salads, sauces, soups, and frittatas, so it gets a lot of respect in my kitchen. But I totally understand your point. I think it’s in part because most restaurants use the curly type which is less flavorful than the flat leaf variety. I would also gladly eat a serving of your potatoes right now!
If you want to impress your dinner guest(s), you can refer to these as potatoes persillade — which just means equal parts parsley and garlic.
Lovely photo of the potatoes! I agree that parsley is a bit underrated. I usually have both types in my garden, but to be honest, I love the curly for any type of salad where parsley is one of the main ingredients. In a dish like this, I agree, I’d use flat parsley.
I agree that parsley gets little respect – it is overused as a garnish perhaps.
I marvel at the photo. I really do. It reminds me of a Patricia Wells’ recipe for potatoes I posted about last summer or fall.
People for Parsley-hooray! I am also a big fan of the flat leaf variety – I put it in nearly everything because I just love the fresh flavor. This post is a great reminder that generally the best recipes & techniques are the simplest ones. If anyone feels the need fancy this dish up, I suggest serving with a blob of sour cream or creme fraiche, topped with a bit more of the gorgeous parsely chiffonade. Yum!
Glad to find so many fans of parsley! And thanks for the compliments on the photography. Helen over at Beyond Salmon just did a post about the big role good photography plays in food blogging. She even cooked a dish a second time to get a better picture of it—and she shares the before and after shots. Check it out.
Kristen—I never heard the term persillade before, but now I shall work it into conversation incessantly.
Kalyn—I’d be impressed with growing one kind of parsley—when I’ve tried to grrow it, it just goes all rangy. But two?! Wow.
Pam—thanks for the tip for fancying things up. And another option might be to mix equal parts plain yogurt and dijon mustard with some parsley chiffonade.
Terry, I’m Irish-American, so I guess that explains my obsession with potatoes. But, I think anyone would lust after this amazing dish you made! The pictures are so beautiful–I want to pluck one of the potatoes out and eat it right now! Perfect!
Beautiful potatoes Terry!! I’m so glad you wrote this post about parsley…I’ll be writing something similar soon with a different parsley recipe. Before I moved to Sicily, I never used fresh parsley but now I use more than any other fresh herb. In fact I have tons of it growing in the back yard right now. You’re right, it has a wonderful fresh flavor and it really brightens up both the flavor and look of a dish. In Italy, parsley seems to be added to just about everything but one of my favorite ways to use the herb is a garnish on grilled meat. Both grilled steak and chicken are treated very simply here…brushed with olive oil, seasoned with salt and maybe a little black pepper, grilled, then garnished with more olive oil, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, and fresh chopped parsley. Sounds simple but the taste is out of this world! Mmmmmm…these potatoes would be the perfect accompaniment!!
Ok, sorry for writing a book here…you’re potatoes got me a little too excited 😉 Ciao!
I’m a big fan of parsley. Your potatoes look perfectly roasted!
What an easy and yummy way of doing potatoes. You made my day!! 🙂
Nicole—Don’t worry about writing a “book” here. I’m guilty of that all the time at others’ blogs. Besides, when books are as interesting as this one, we’re all happy to read it. I’m looking forward to your upcoming parsley post—and to trying your approach to grilling steaks. Sounds delicious!
“…it was started a year ago [that’s seven years ago in blog years]…”
Heh!