Ready for another easy and impressive Italian recipe? This roasted red potatoes recipe is one of my favorites and I have a short video (shown below) to show how easy it is to make! It uses 4 primary ingredients:
- Red potatoes
- Salt (& pepper)
- Olive oil (extra virgin)
- Dried rosemary (You can use fresh rosemary if you have it in your garden)
The steps for making this Italian favorite of mine couldn’t be easier, plus it’s a one pot dish recipe so we are talking about super easy clean up!
Serve Alone or with Meats
I’ve made this recipe as a single meal (we don’t get fancy here), but I also make it when we have chicken, beef, or lamb. You can also prepare it in advance of a big meal like for a holiday and then cook it when it’s time. Just add some extra time due to the cold temperature of the food if it was stored in the fridge.
What size to Cube the Potatoes
So one question I run into is what size to cut the potatoes. It’s the same as making mashed potatoes. The larger the cubes, the longer it’s going to take for the oven to heat up the middle of each potato cube. So I like to cut them in 1 inch or 1/2 inch sizes.
Try to make them all the same size so they cook evenly.
Olive Oil is More than Just Flavor
For this recipe, the olive oil serves two purposes. One obviously is the flavor of the oil, but also by coating the potatoes in the olive oil you allow the oven to roast the outside of each potato (skinned or not) so they crisp up.
This recipe is for 2-3 people or 5 servings. Adjust the ingredients as needed.
Food Prep Steps
First, chop the red potatoes into one inch pieces (I do find the red potatoes are best, but if you only have another kind of potato, then that is fine too). If using organic potatoes you can leave the skin on – just give it a good scrubbing to remove any dirt.
Add about 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in your baking dish. You’ll see in my video I used my Cuisinart French Classic Tri-Ply Stainless 5-1/2-Quart Saute Pan 
Add the potatoes into the pan, then add the olive oil, salt and pepper and rosemary.
Give it a good toss with your hands and make sure the potatoes are evenly coated. There is no exact science to how much of each ingredient to use here. In fact, this is probably my first video recipe I did where I didn’t actually have exact measurements.
For those who are petrified of using too much or too less, here is approximately what I used (remember if you are making more then increase these measurements!):
- Salt – 2 teaspoons
- Rosemary – 1 Tablespoons
- Olive Oil – 3 Tablespoons
Note – if you don’t use enough olive oil to coat the potatoes they will not crisp up – and that is what you are aiming for. You can see in the picture above some of mine have a really nice roasted skin on them – ideally you want all of them to be like that, however you have to make sure that to make all of them nice and brown you aren’t accidentally burning ones that for whatever reason have browned first.
Baking Instructions:
Bake the potatoes at 375F, or go to 400F if you want to speed it up just a little bit but make sure not to burn it!
Bake for about 30 minutes, then using a spatula or whatever you have, turn the potatoes so that the undersides can get roasted too. It’s not an exact science like I said, so if you miss a few don’t worry about it.
Also, just take the whole pan out when you do this, don’t try to do it in the oven and be lazy like me – it’s easier to just take it out, set on top of the stove and then give the potatoes a stir. My original video shows this but it made it too long so you don’t see this step in the video.
Then bake again for another 20-25 minutes. The key is to keep your eye on it – when it gets nice an crispy looking it’s ready. Not all of the potatoes have to have a crispy skin on them – but you definitely want the bulk of them to.
You will really begin to smell that rosemary and you will get hungrier as the aromatic minutes pass by!
A few flavorful notes:
You will see that in the video I mention you can use black pepper along with the salt, however we don’t in our household. This is not a flavor preference, but black pepper does not sit well with us so we rarely ever use it. If you fit in this category try using white pepper. We often use white pepper, but honestly this recipe isn’t lacking anything if you choose not to use it.
Garlic! You can take some cloves of garlic and leave them whole or crush them and toss them in the pan – get them coated with the oil too. If you are having guests and aren’t sure if they will like the garlic, then it’s best to leave it out. Either way is fine.
If making this dish for a large party such as for Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday, you will obviously need to up the quantities I mention above. Don’t even bother trying to measure, just sprinkle on the seasonings. Don’t be shy! This is one of the easiest Italian recipes to make!
Let me know if you like this recipe! I hope you enjoy it!
Ciao!
Liz
