Olive Pesto Smashed Potatoes Recipe

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Olive Pesto Smashed Potatoes
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Ingredients
7
Count
Nutrition
4587
Calories
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Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. Make pesto: Purée garlic and basil in a food processor. Add olives and oil and pulse to a smooth, thick paste. Turn into a bowl and stir in cheese.
  2. Put potatoes in a large pot on the stove with generously salted water to cover. Bring almost to a boil and cook until easily pierced with a knife, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain. When cool enough to handle, press each between your hands until about 3/4 in. thick but still in one piece.
  3. Build a fire and let burn to ashy chunks (see The DIY Firepit, below).
  4. Spread each potato with 1 heaping tbsp. pesto and press to compact it. Heat a cast-iron skillet, then add potatoes. Pan-roast until crisp underneath, 5 minutes. Turn pesto side down and let roast and crisp up. Roasting the pesto adds umami to the potatoes and an interesting toastiness. Put on a platter, pesto side up, and sprinkle with parsley.
  5. Make ahead: Potatoes and pesto, up to 2 days, chilled and covered.
  6. The DIY Firepit
  7. You can do anything on this. It's a little like camping in the middle of your day, says Napa Valley chef Michael Chiarello. All you need is bricks arranged to fit under your cooking grate and some sand.
  8. Build the pit: Spread a double layer of heavy-duty foil on the ground ( not grass, warns Chiarello, since it may scorch). Make it big enough to extend a foot beyond your cooking grate in all directions. Build a brick rectangle 3 layers high, leaving a couple of bricks out of the top layer on opposite sides, to encourage airflow. (For a standard 21-in. round Weber grate, the rectangle should be 2 bricks by 3 bricks.) Fill with about an inch of sand.
  9. Light the fire: Put several balled-up sheets of newspaper in the center and position kindling into a tipi around it; lean larger kindling and then 5 to 6 small logs (preferably oak). Light the fire. The tipi lets every bit of flame go up past 3 or 4 logs, says Chiarello, so the fire starts fast. Once the logs have caught, add several larger logs to the perimeter. Let them burn down to ashy chunks with low flames (1 1/2 to 2 hours). Because there's less smoke and char than cooking over a flaming fire, Chiarello says, it makes your food taste much cleaner, gives nuanced flavor, and is better for wine.
  10. Start cooking: Keep another log burning at the back of the pit. When it's ashy chunks, rake it into the main fire to maintain heat.
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Nutrition Facts

Per ServingPer 100 g
Amount Per 1 Serving
Calories 4587.03 Kcal (19205 kJ)
Calories from fat 4006.4 Kcal
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 445.16g 685%
Cholesterol 889.53mg 297%
Sodium 388.95mg 16%
Potassium 115.71mg 2%
Total Carbs 19.39g 6%
Sugars 0.39g 2%
Dietary Fiber 0.47g 2%
Protein 136.45g 273%
Vitamin C 13mg 22%
Iron 1mg 6%
Calcium 624.7mg 62%
Amount Per 100 g
Calories 1347.74 Kcal (5643 kJ)
Calories from fat 1177.14 Kcal
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 130.79g 685%
Cholesterol 261.36mg 297%
Sodium 114.28mg 16%
Potassium 34mg 2%
Total Carbs 5.7g 6%
Sugars 0.11g 2%
Dietary Fiber 0.14g 2%
Protein 40.09g 273%
Vitamin C 3.8mg 22%
Iron 0.3mg 6%
Calcium 183.5mg 62%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Find out how many calories should you eat.

Tastes

  • salty
  • savory
  • bitter
  • sweet
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Recipe Tags

Weightwatchers Points

  • 128.7
    Points
  • 129
    PointsPlus

Good Points

  • saturated fat free,
  • low sodium,
  • sugar free

Bad Points

  • High in Total Fat

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