Hasselback Potatoes with Spinach Pesto
I’m sure you guys have been seeing a lot of green foods out there in preparation for St Patrick’s Day coming up tomorrow. Well I’m bringing you a green food that didn’t require any food coloring! And it’s delicious.
A lot of food blogs have featured the Hasselback potato. It is simply referring to how you slice and cook the potato as you can see in the picture. Using this procedure gives a delicious baked potato with crispy edges. And who doesn’t love some crispy edges on their potatoes?
I got the idea to top the potato with a spinach pesto from Joy the Baker. The spinach and garlic pesto gives great flavor to the potato. Hubby and I enjoyed these as a light lunch the first time we had them and they would also be great sitting next to a juicy steak!
Based on the recipe below, you will have some leftover spinach pesto. But we’ve been enjoying it on sandwiches, with pasta, or any other place you’d use pesto!
One Year Ago: Double Peanut Butter Cookies
Two Years Ago: Double Chocolate Brownie Roll Out Cookies
Three Years Ago: Cadbury Egg Bites
Hasselback Potatoes with Spinach Pesto
Yield: 4
Ingredients:
For the Potatoes
4 russet potatoes
4 garlic cloves
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
coarse sea salt
3 Tbsp olive oil
For the Pesto
2 loosely packed cups of spinach
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cups roasted almonds
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup olive oil
Directions:
For the Potatoes
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Thinly slice garlic cloves. Set aside. Rinse and scrub potatoes well.
Slice a thin layer off of the bottom of the potatoes. This will give them a solid base to rest on to get sliced. Slice into the potatoes but not completely through them. Slice potatoes, creating very thin rounds connected at a base. Slide garlic slices in between potato slices. You might actually need to shove them in… the potato might be pretty tight. Just be careful not to tear the bottom.
Place potatoes on a baking sheet. Generously sprinkle potatoes with salt. Top each potato with one tablespoon of butter. Drizzle with oil. Bake for 1 hour or until tender on the inside and crisp on the outside. Remove the pan about every 15 minutes to baste potatoes in the oil and butter on the pan. This will make the skin crispy and delicious and the potato extra buttery.
When cooked through and crispy, remove from the oven, cool for 10 minutes. Top with spinach pesto and serve.
For the Pesto
Place garlic cloves, spinach, nuts, lemon juice, zest and Parmesan cheese in the bowl of a food processor. Blend until spinach is broken down and, whiles still blending, slowly pour in the olive oil. Turn off food processor, taste and add salt and pepper as needed.
Recipe from Joy the Baker
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Beautiful photos. We loved it too.
This is such a great dish and so colorful too!
Looks beautiful! I agree it comes together pretty fast.
Glad you loved it!
~The Cat’s Pajamas
Your salad looks great! Glad to see a fellow Boston girl (well, we left the city 2 years ago but still work here) on the Bloggers!
Looks great!
Wow your salad looks so good. I think I am going to try making this again after a trip to the market this weekend.
Great picture! I’ve been thinking that this would be great for Shakespear in the Park. Cool and refreshing!
I love Panzanella, but haven’t had Ina’s version yet (Tyler’s is delish!) – perfect recipe for summertime.
Good tip on the croutons – this one looks like a total winner.