Fingerling Potatoes with Bacon, Sage and Lemon

A little backwards this week. Here's a recipe. Commentary / advice / rambling thoughts to follow.

Prep - prior to tossing and roasting

You need to make this dish. I've been on a Jamie Oliver tear for the past few weeks, with good reason. Yesterday I saw a recipe that called for coring medium sized potatoes, then stuffing them with bacon, an anchovy, a sage leaf and lemon zest. Stunning presentation, but all I had were fingerlings - too small to stuff.

So I halved the fingerlings and used similar ingredients, mixing a little anchovy paste with lemon juice. Roast for 25 minutes. Unbelievable. You can't stop eating these.

Fingerlings are a nice, but expensive, shortcut in the kitchen. They usually just need a gentle rinse and never need peeling. So preparatiaon is super fast. The trick is if you can find fingerlings at a great price. Spec's flagship store in mid-town Houston has them for about $1.50 per pound.


Fingerling Potatoes with Bacon, Sage and Lemon

1-1/4 pound fingerling or baby potatoes, mixed colors and sizes
4 slices thick cut bacon, cut into 3/4" pieces
1 lemon, zested, juice reserved
1 teaspoon anchovy paste, or 1 anchovy mushed up with a fork.
1 tablespoon olive oil
4-6 fresh sage leaves
2 sprigs fresh thyme

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Rinse the potatoes, and slice all by the smallest ones in half lengthwise.
• Mash anchovy paste into lemon juice to combine
• Toss potatoes with lemon zest, oil, bacon pieces, lemon juice mixture, sage and thyme.
• Season with salt and fresh ground pepper.
• Roast for 12 minutes - check doneness, and roast for 8-12 more minutes. Turn pan if your oven heats unevenly.
• Serve immediately or at room temp.
 



My herb garden

Thyme on bottom left, sage on right.