Swedish Hasselback Potatoes

Aren’t they gorgeous and way more appealing than some normal baked potatoes? It might look complicated but you won’t believe how incredibly easy they are to make.

Hasselback potatoes: What a weird name, isn’t it? As per Google/WP, these potatoes were first introduced in the 1700s by a restaurant located in Stockholm named Hasselbacken. And European Cuisines have adopted them as “Accordion Potatoes” (Because of the shape – so cute!). Such a great and elegant alternative to regular baked potatoes, isn’t it?

To this day it says, they are still prepared very similar to the original recipe. However, you can always play around with seasonings and garnishes. Here, I have added some garlic and few basil leaves to enhance the flavor. It turned out great, they were very delicious, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Plus my pesto sauce was like icing on the cake. We totally enjoyed every bite.

Next time when you want to make Baked potatoes for the party, I suggest you should prepare them this way than normal boring foil wrapped potatoes. The presentation and taste both will be an absolutely crowd pleasing.

Hasselback Potatoes :

Adapted from The Purple Foodie but with my changes of course 🙂

Preparation time: 15-20 minutes

Baking time: 50 minutes

Yields: 2 servings

Ingredients:

(The measurement depends on the number of potatoes you decide to prepare)

• 2 large Baking potatoes (here I made it for 2 of us and I used large baking potatoes but you can use medium/small as per your choice)
• 1  tbsp butter cut into tiny cubes
• 2 tbsp basil flavored olive oil + 1tbsp for potato skin
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
• Fresh basil leaves – roughly chopped
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Pesto sauce – Grounded in Mortar-pastel (Recipe follows)

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 4o0F. Scrub the potatoes clean, get rid of all the dirt and wash them nicely. Do not peel the potatoes, because we want to enjoy the crispy, golden skin at the end. Also slice thin layer off the bottom so that it can balance nicely while you are working on it. Now put them on a flat surface and cut across the potatoes at a 1/4 – 1/8 inches interval, making sure that you don’t cut all the way through, but leave 1/4 of an inch of potato. Now transfer them on a baking sheet. Place the sliced garlic and basil leaves in between the layers of potatoes, and push the cubes of butter in at equal intervals (If using it).

To make basil flavored olive oil, in a bowl mix olive oil with some sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and some chopped basil. Spread it over potatoes with pastry brush. Make sure oil goes in to the wedges as well. Also apply oil all over the potato to get nice, crispy skin. 

Sprinkle of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Put it in the oven for 30 minutes partially covered with aluminum foil so that you do not end up burning the skin. After 30 minutes uncover and bake for another 20 minutes.

Remove from oven and eat warm. Spread some fresh grounded pesto sauce and sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on the top! Enjoy the flavors of fresh pesto combined with warm potatoes! Heavenly, believe me.

Fresh Pesto Sauce with walnuts:

Traditional recipe requires pine nuts but I personally do not enjoy its taste in Pesto . So I am using walnuts.

Total time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp toasted walnuts
• 1 clove of garlic
• ¼ tsp coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cups basil, washed
• 1 Tbsp Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp Lemon juice

Method:

I used mortar and pestle to make my pesto especially for Hazzelback potatoes. Because I wanted to enjoy tiny pieces of every single ingredients I used in pesto which I can not if I make a paste.

You can always use a food processor.  The procedure is the same. Grind the walnuts and garlic to a paste. Add salt, black pepper, basil leaves and half the olive oil. Blend well. Now add the Parmesan cheese. Now through the feed tube, pour in rest of the oil until evenly blended. Add lemon juice in the end and mix well. It’s ready to serve. Enjoy the most heavenly condiment on the earth!!

Love,