The Perfect Starch

There are times when a recipe is so simple, I wonder whether it’s worth sharing.  This one is embarrassingly simple.  But it’s embarrassingly amazing.  It’s likely you won’t believe me.  How good can potatoes, butter, salt and pepper be?

Oh, they can be good.

They can be so crispy the crunch echoes through your kitchen when you bite into one.

They can be so flavorful you start thinking of them as a complete meal.

They can steal the show away from anything else you put on the plate.

They are magic.

But you have to make them first.

I wish I could feed them to you in large doses.  You’ll have to settle for the recipe.

It hails from our neighbor.  Brother Bear’s friend Vinny’s mom.  The same one who brought you Pepperoni Gravy.  Which should be endorsement enough.  We call them MVPs.  Because they are Mrs. Vinny’s Potatoes.

To make enough for 4 you will need:

• 1 package new potatoes
• 6 T (3/4 stick) butter (sure, you could cut back to 1/2 stick, but why would you want to?), sliced into pats
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Cut potatoes into 1 1/2 inch chunks.  Place in 9 x 13 baking dish, and top with pats of butter.  Top with salt and pepper.  Bake for 2 hours, stopping every 30 minutes to toss potatoes.