Rebecca Nielsen's Recipe

Loaded Smashed Potatoes with Herbed Goat Cheese

Category: Potatoes

Serves/Makes: 2
Difficulty: 2
Prep/Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds red bliss potatoes, skin on, large dice
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 T kosher salt
2 sprigs fresh oregano
4 ounces fresh goat cheese with herbs and garlic, room temperature
6 slices beef bacon (or pork if you can't find beef) finely chopped.
2 T chopped fresh chives
3 T butter, room temperature
1/4 cup half and half
1 1/2 t coarse ground black pepper

Preparation:

Fill a large sauce pan with cold water. Add garlic, salt and oregano (leave whole) and potatoes. Bring to a boil and boil until potatoes are fork tender, about 20 minutes.

While potatoes are cooking, in a medium skillet cook finely chopped bacon until just crispy. Do not drain. Set aside.

When potatoes are done, drain, discard oregano stems (some of the leaves will have fallen off, and that is good) and put back in pan. With a regular potato masher, not a ricer, smash potatoes so their is still some chunks and rough texture.

Add bacon, including drippings, goat cheese, butter and half and half. Mix until just combined. Stir in chives and pepper. Spoon into a serving dish and serve.

Cooks Notes - When I made these we ate them right away but had leftovers. The next day I put the casserole dish in the oven to heat them up and the flavors had married (especially the bacon) and it was like a whole new dish.

I always use beef bacon (recommend Whole Foods). There is not nearly as much fat as with Pork and the flavor is much richer. If you do use Pork, keep the drippings that you add to about 1 T.