A week doesn’t go by that The One and I don’t eat potatoes at least twice. We like them roasted, mashed, fried, smashed, in stews, on pizzas, and beneath cuts of roasted meat. Basically, we lack any sense of discretion or gustatory restraint.
Wanting a bit of variety–because let’s be honest, even potatoes fried in duck fat can become ho-hum if you have it too often–I decided to switch it up a bit. And I wasn’t just looking for something different; I wanted something easy that I could make with ingredients we always had on hand.
Enter crispy herbed Parmesan potatoes.
These little gems are packed with flavor and have a nice crispy crunch courtesy of the caramelized Parmesan cheese. You can use just about any herb mix you want. Although we did make them with a boutique blend of herbes de Provence that included lavender, and, well, we chucked the batch. Wicked weird flavor combo.–David Leite
Crispy Herbed Parmesan Potatoes
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
- 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 3/4 teaspoon onion powder
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Olive oil
- 1 1/2 pounds new potatoes (about 24), halved or quartered, if large (each piece should be about 1 inch [25 mm])
Instructions
- Set the oven rack to the middle position and crank the heat to 400°F (200°C).
- In a small bowl, mix the cheese, herbs, garlic and onion powders, a generous pinch of salt, and a few grinds of black pepper.
- Lightly coat the bottom of a 9 by 13-inch (23-by 33-cm) baking dish with olive oil and evenly cover the dish with the cheese mixture.
☞ TESTER TIP: Using a glass baking dish for these potatoes will allow you to keep an eye on the color of the cheese as they cook.
- Press the potatoes, cut side down, into the cheese mixture. Drizzle the backs of the potatoes with 1 to 2 tablespoons oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Roast the potatoes until softened and the cheese is golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. Take care not to cook for too long or the Parmesan may turn bitter.
- Transfer to a rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Using a sharp knife, cut between the potatoes, if needed, to release them, and pile into a warm serving bowl.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
This recipe caught my attention right away as a simple side dish that would go with just about any entrée. It’s not a ‘big batch’ recipe, and seems to be scalable as long as you have an appropriately sized pan.
I set the oven to 400°F, and the prep was done before the oven came to temp. I began with the indicated amount of Yukon Gold potatoes, and no peeling is a time-saver! All the remaining ingredients were on hand and prep was easy. I recommend using a glass pan for this one—it’s easy to see progress, easy to serve from, and easy to clean up.
I added 2T of EVOO to coat the pan, then added the cheese mixture and topped it with the potatoes. Be cautious—don’t drizzle too much oil on the top of the potatoes or you’ll have a greasy mess.
My potatoes were done at 30 minutes, and I recommend trying to find potatoes of a consistent size for even cooking. There was a good amount of bubbling from the cheese and oil, but this died down and was easily served after the 5 minute rest period. The crunchy, browned herby cheese is a nice complement to the creamy potatoes.
If you’re looking for faster cleanup, pass on the serving bowl and serve right in the pan. I recommend flipping the potatoes over for the nicest presentation. I love the speedy prep and the flexibility of this recipe to adjust seasonings. It’s also a great last-minute recipe when you can’t decide what to eat. This one is a winner in my book!
What a great little recipe for potatoes! I loved how the parmesan gets all crispy and crunchy—kind of like the edge of lasagna or a good Parmesan crisp. This requires just a few ingredients, and after a little over 30 minutes, you have savory, perfectly cooked potatoes. Note that I never use onion powder, but given the results, I was happy to purchase it.
I served this alongside a lamb stew and was very satisfied. Note that I used red-skinned potatoes. I tried to find the smallest available. I ended up needing 7 potatoes to get to the required weight. I cut a few of the bigger ones to make sure all the potato halves were of comparable size.
Wow! These were delicious and so easy to prepare. My tasters were raving and I will for sure be making these again. The only difficult thing was drizzling the potatoes and making sure they’re properly coated—so next time, I would probably toss them in salt and pepper and olive oil before placing them in the baking dish. After finishing all of the potatoes, we were left with little crumbs of Parmesan deliciousness. These would taste incredible on mac and cheese or popcorn.
I ran out of onion powder, so I just added extra garlic powder and Italian herbs.
These roasted parmesan potatoes were quite yummy. They were also easy to prep and would go nicely with many dishes, which is a plus. I’ll for sure keep the recipe handy and make them in the future, with just a couple of changes.
For my oven, the temp of 400°F seemed too high. After 35 min, the cheese started burning and potatoes weren’t cooked through so I covered them loosely with foil and increased the time to 40 minutes. I think this was because the potatoes we had were larger, and that probably had something to do with it. If the potatoes are larger, I would decrease the oven temp and increase the cooking time.
Allowing the potatoes to rest before serving really allowed the cheese to crisp up nice and crunchy! I served them with BBQ baked ribs and the roasted romaine Caesar salad. A perfect meal.
Not sure if it matters re: grate texture. For the grated parm are you using the tiny holes on box grater for a “powdery” texture or a rasper that would be more stringy?
Den, either way of grating the parmesan cheese should work well. If you make them, please let us know how they turn out.
I searched for a recipe to use up my “too big of a purchase” of baby potatoes from the Farmer’s Market and found these parmesan potatoes. Following one of the Tester’s suggestions – I tossed the potatoes with the olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and coarse black pepper and then put them on the seasoned parmesan. They roasted to perfection! I could easily sit and dip these potatoes in ketchup and eat them like French Fries. Love the caramelized parmesan!
After this you’ll never have too many baby potatoes in our pantry, Deb. EVER!
I made these for dinner last night and they were delicious. Creamy inside and crunchy cheesey on the outside. This will definitely go into the regular rotation. I did put too much oil over the top which ended up pooling in the bottom of the pan, so next time I will toss the potatoes in bowl with oil first before arranging in pan. But no matter, they were fantastic!
Thanks, Kai! We’re delighted that you love them as much as we do!