Pommes Duchesse (Duchess Potatoes)

The fanciest, fussiest mashed potatoes.

Duchess potatoes served in a dish.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Have you ever found yourself staring at a mound of mashed potatoes, perhaps nestled alongside a perfectly seared steak or jostling for room on an overfilled holiday plate, and thought, “I love my grade-school gravy moat, but there has to be a fancier, fussier, French-ier way of plating these spuds”? If you answered yes, and aren’t already familiar with pommes duchesse, then it’s time to get acquainted. Duchess potatoes are classic old-school French cuisine: riced boiled potatoes, mounted with egg yolks and butter, and seasoned with nutmeg. This mixture could be used as a base for other potato preparations such as pommes dauphine, which incorporates pâte à choux for airy fried potato puffs, or stuffed into a pastry bag fitted with a decorative star tip, then piped and baked into pretty individual portions of rich mashed potato.

To be clear, aesthetics aren’t the only draw of pommes duchesse. The addition of eggs adds structure that allows the potatoes to hold their shape when piped, it also lends them extra richness. For this recipe, I settled on a combination of two yolks plus one whole egg, which, when baked, help the potatoes puff up, their surface browning and crisping slightly, producing a thin shell of sorts that contrasts nicely with the creamy mashed potato interior. It’s like a cross between a savory mashed potato soufflé and meringue.

Piping individual portions of potato may seem a little much for some people, and I don’t disagree. But sometimes you want to pull out all the stops at a dinner party or holiday gathering, and this is the perfect recipe for those occasions. I developed the recipe to work for making either individual piped portions or a slightly more rustic, but still eye-catching, family-style casserole. To maximize creaminess without compromising on structural integrity, I add a touch of heavy cream to the mixture along with the traditional eggs and butter.

Yukon Golds produce the silkiest, and most full-flavored duchess potatoes, but russets work fine as well. An optional light coating of clarified butter promotes browning in the oven, but there’s enough fat in the potato mixture already to get good results without it. When you want to impress, go with duchesse.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 450°F (230°C). In a medium pot, combine potatoes, 2 quarts cold water, and 2 teaspoons salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to maintain a simmer. Cook until potatoes are tender and offer little resistance when pierced with a paring knife, about 10 minutes. Drain potatoes, then return to now-empty pot.

Potatoes in water on a stovetop.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Set pot over low heat and cook, shaking constantly, until moisture has evaporated from potatoes, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Boiled potato pieces drained of water.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Using a ricer or food mill, pass potatoes into a medium bowl. Using a flexible spatula, stir in butter. Once butter is fully incorporated, stir in cream and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in beaten egg mixture until combined, taking care not to over-mix the potatoes.

Cream and eggs being added to potato mash.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

For Individual Portions: Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and grease lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer potato mixture to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch star tip. To pipe the potatoes, hold the filled pastry bag at an 80° angle, apply steady downward pressure, and pipe a 3-inch-wide mound, working in a circular motion. To stop piping, cease applying pressure and swirl the pastry tip away. Continue to pipe portions about 2 inches apart, for a total of 12 portions. Lightly coat portions with clarified butter (if using), taking care not to undo the piped design.

Piping potatoes onto parchment paper.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

For a Casserole: Grease a 2-quart baking dish, then set it on a rimmed baking sheet. Transfer 2/3 of potato mixture to prepared baking dish. Transfer remaining 1/3 to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch star tip. Using a flexible or offset spatula, smooth potato mixture in baking dish in an even layer. Pipe remaining potato on top by holding filled pastry bag at an 80° angle, and applying steady downward pressure to form small mounds in an even decorative pattern. Lightly coat portions with clarified butter (if using), taking care not to undo the piped design.

Nearly complete Duchess potatoes.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Transfer to oven and bake until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes for individual portions, and about 25 minutes for a casserole; rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Serve.

Baked Duchess potatoes.
Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Special Equipment

Ricer or food mill, disposable pastry bag, 1/2-inch star tip, rimmed baking sheet, 2-quart baking dish (optional)

Notes

We feel that creamy full-flavored Yukon Golds make the best duchess potatoes, but russets also work for this recipe. Duchess potatoes made with russets have a fluffier and slightly drier interior; if you want the texture to be closer to the Yukon Gold version, add 1 to 2 tablespoons more cream to the potato mixture in step 3.

Make-Ahead and Storage

The potato mixture can be prepared through step 4, and the baking sheet of piped portions or casserole can be covered and refrigerated overnight. Allow potatoes to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before baking.

Potato and Cheese Pierogi

Creamy, crispy Eastern European potato dumplings you can make at home.

Serving plate of pan-fried pierogi with ramekins of sour cream and cooked onion on the side.
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

When I was living and cooking in restaurants in Chicago, one of my go-to day-off routines was to walk a few blocks from my apartment in Logan Square to catch a movie at the Logan Theatre, then walk north on Milwaukee Avenue to stop in for a plate of pierogi at Staropolska Restaurant, before swinging back around to pick up some more pierogi and meats at Kurowski Sausage Shop on my way home. The store-bought pierogi were always a clutch item to have in the fridge for a 2am midweek snack when I’d get home from a long night of service at the restaurant; boiling water for potato-and-cheese dumplings was the maximum amount of cooking effort I was willing to put in once I got home, although there were rare occasions when I felt particularly ambitious and busted out a skillet to crisp up the pierogi after boiling. 

I eventually moved back to Boston, a pierogi desert, and was forced to subsist on frozen Mrs. T’s (no disrespect, I will devour a box of those any time) until I found my way to New York, and Serious Eats. Our visual director at the time, Vicky Wasik, would often, although not as often as I’d like, bring in batches of her mother’s homemade pierogi for office snacking. I was back in the game with a solid pierogi connection. Then quarantine happened, and working from home meant no more pierogi deliveries. I was on my own again, a little too far from the Polish neighborhood in Greenpoint and far enough from Veselka in the East Village that regular trips for varenyky (the Ukrainian term for pierogi) weren’t in the cards.

All this is to say that I finally had to come to terms with the fact that I’d need to learn how to make pierogi on my own. With the help of Vicky, and her mother by proxy, I have developed this recipe for potato-and-cheese pierogi. They are pretty darn good.

Sealing a pierog by hand
Vicky Wasik

To make the filling, I combine boiled riced russet potatoes with butter, cooked onion, and farmer cheese. It’s important to evaporate as much surface moisture from the boiled potatoes as possible before ricing them, in order to keep the filling from getting too loose, which makes any dumpling filling a pain to work with.

For the dough, I opted for a high-protein all-purpose flour like King Arthur, which gives the wrappers just the right amount of chew and elasticity, without making the dough hard to roll out. Sour cream and egg also helps in this department, with the fat lending the dough enough extensibility by limited gluten development that it’s easy to roll out by hand after a short rest.

A serving plate of pierogi topped with onions and chives
Vicky Wasik

The extensibility and suppleness of the dough makes it easy to stretch and seal the wrappers around the filling as well, without the need for wetting or crimping the edges of each pierog. Just make sure to firmly pinch each dumpling closed for a tight seal, as you don’t want them blowing out when boiled or crisped at the end. Like other dumplings, pierogi freeze well, and the recipe can easily be broken into make-ahead steps (the filling, dough, and formed pierogi can all be made in advance) if you want to break up the process over the course of a couple of days.

As manageable as the process can be, I have to admit—I still wish I lived closer to a pierogi purveyor.

For the Filling: In a medium skillet, melt 2 tablespoons (30g) butter over medium heat. Add onion, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring frequently, until softened, about 5 minutes. Continue to cook, stirring frequently and adding 1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30ml) of water at a time when onions begin to stick and threaten to scorch, until light golden-brown, about 15 minutes.

Chopped onion cooking in a skillet until light golden brown.
Vicky Wasik

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, combine potatoes, 2 quarts (1.9L) water, and 2 teaspoons (6g) salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to maintain a simmer. Cook until potatoes are tender and offer little resistance when pierced with a paring knife, about 10 minutes. Drain potatoes, and return to now-empty saucepan. Set saucepan over low heat and cook, shaking constantly, until moisture has evaporated from potatoes, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Drained boiled potatoes in a saucepan.
Vicky Wasik

Using a ricer or food mill, pass potatoes into a medium bowl. Using a flexible spatula, stir in remaining 3 tablespoons (45g) butter, and 1/2 cup (115g) of the reserved onion mixture; transfer remaining onion mixture to a small bowl for garnish. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Stir in farmer cheese until thoroughly combined, cover, and set aside if making the pierogi right away, or refrigerate filling for up to 2 days.

Mixing riced potato, onion, and farmer cheese in a bowl for the pierogi filling.
Vicky Wasik

For the Dough: Whisk together flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer until thoroughly combined, at least 30 seconds. Add sour cream and egg, fit stand mixer with dough hook, and mix on medium-high speed until a smooth and elastic dough forms that pulls away from the sides of the bowl, 6 to 8 minutes. Cover, and set aside at room temperature for at least 30 minutes or wrap in plastic and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

Mixing pierogi dough in a stand mixer
Vicky Wasik

To Assemble and Finish: While dough is resting, portion the potato filling. Using a 1-tablespoon measuring spoon, scoop 1 heaping tablespoon (1 ounce; 30g) portions of potato mixture onto a rimmed baking sheet. Roll each portion between your palms to form a ball and set back on baking sheet. Line a second rimmed baking sheet with parchment, and dust lightly with flour; set aside.

Portioning filling into balls for pierogi
Vicky Wasik

Once dough is rested, turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll dough into a roughly 18-inch circle, about 1/8-inch thick. Using a 3-inch cookie cutter, punch out 24 rounds of dough. Place one portion of filling in the center of each round of dough. Working with one portion of dough at a time, fold dough over filling to form a half-moon while distributing filling to fit within it, firmly pinch edges to seal, and transfer to prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining portions. Uncooked pierogi can be covered and refrigerated for up to 24 hours.

Rolling out dough, filling, and forming pierogi.
Vicky Wasik

In a pot of boiling salted water, cook half of the pierogi until dough is cooked through and filling is heated through, 3 to 5 minutes. Using a spider skimmer, transfer to a lightly greased baking sheet. Repeat with remaining pierogi. Boiled pierogi can be served as-is with reserved cooked onion and sour cream, or proceed to step 8 for pan-frying instructions.

Pierogi cooking in a pot of boiling water.
Vicky Wasik

In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon (15ml) vegetable oil and 1 tablespoon (15g) butter over medium-high heat until butter is foaming. Add enough pierogi to cover the bottom of the skillet in a single layer without crowding the pan, and cook, flipping occasionally, until crisp and golden brown on both sides, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer to serving platter. Repeat with remaining pierogi, adding remaining oil and butter as needed. Serve, passing sour cream, reserved onion, and chives (if using) at the table.

Pierogi crisping in a skillet with butter and oil.
Vicky Wasik

Special Equipment

Ricer or food mill, stand mixer, 3-inch cookie cutter, rimmed baking sheets, large nonstick skillet

Notes

We often avoid King Arthur's all-purpose flour because of its higher-than-standard protein content relative to other brands of all-purpose flour. Here, though, it does its job perfectly. Take note, therefore, that substituting lower-protein all-purpose flour from other brands in this recipe may impact results.

Make-Ahead and Storage

This recipe can easily be broken into parts, with components that can be made in advance if you don't want to tackle the project from start to finish all at once. The filling can be made in advance and refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 days. The dough can be made in advance and refrigerated for up to 24 hours. Formed, uncooked pierogi can be made in advance and refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 1 month. Boiled pierogi can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Patates Lemonates (Greek Lemon Potatoes)

The brightness of these spuds make them the perfect foil to hearty roasted or grilled meats and seafood.

Closeup of a serving plate of Greek lemon potatoes.
Vicky Wasik

When it comes to roast potatoes, people often prize crispness as the ultimate goal; there’s a reason that Kenji’s crispy British-style roasted spuds is one of our most popular recipes. But there are plenty of other styles of oven-roasted potatoes that are worthy of attention, that place a premium on creamy tenderness rather than crunch. Patates lemonates, a classic Greek side of potatoes roasted with olive oil, lemon juice, and oregano, are a top contender in this category. A generous splash of stock or water added to the pan before it goes in the oven creates a braise-roast hybrid cooking environment that gives the spuds their characteristic fork-tender texture. Unlike many Western European potato dishes (I’m looking at you, France), patates lemonates take advantage of the flavor-absorbing qualities of potatoes to imbue them with a burst of citrus acidity rather than just fat and woodsy herbs. This brightness makes them the perfect foil to hearty roasted or grilled meats and seafood.

As is often the case with roast potatoes, patates lemonates are commonly prepared as an accompaniment to roast chicken, with pieces of potato arranged around a bird in a roasting pan so that they soak up poultry juices during cooking. But patates lemonates, which are also known as patates riganates (oregano) or patates sto fourno (oven-roasted), can also easily be prepared on their own.

The simplest approach is to combine large pieces of potato in a baking dish with chicken stock, olive oil, lemon juice, and oregano, and roast them in a hot oven until tender. I went through many rounds of testing tinkering with this method, experimenting with fully uncovered roasting, and then covering and uncovering the baking dish at different intervals to try to create the optimal balance between tenderness and surface browning on the potatoes. Achieving consistent results with this method using different ovens proved to be difficult, so I decided to turn to a non-traditional technique for patates lemonates that has served me well for another iteration of braise-roasted potatoes, French pommes de terre fondantes.

Closeup of lemon potatoes in a skillet before going into the oven
Vicky Wasik

Starting the potatoes in a hot pan with olive oil on the stovetop allowed me to control surface browning, and better dial in the ratio of liquids in the recipe. Striking the right balance between chicken stock, olive oil, and lemon juice is key to this dish. Many recipes call for a 1:1:1 ratio, which I found produced overwhelmingly acidic results. The lemon should be assertive and punchy, but in a sunny, warm fashion. Also, unlike with fondant potatoes, chicken stock isn’t being used to give the dish a saucy finish. I wanted to use just enough that it could get the potatoes tender, and by the time they had reached that texture the stock would have been almost completely absorbed and evaporated, leaving just a slick of aromatic olive oil in the pan.

By getting a jump start on the cooking process on the stovetop, I was able to home in on the roasting time and rate of evaporation, and found that a 3:2:1 ratio of chicken stock to olive oil to lemon juice gave me the flavor I was after. To drive the brightness of the citrus home, I held back one tablespoon of lemon juice until the potatoes came out of the oven, and stirred it in before serving to achieve a happy medium between the warm sweetness of cooked lemon and bracing punch of fresh juice. This is a side dish that can easily upstage any main.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 425°F (220°C). In a 12-inch stainless steel straight-sided sauté pan or skillet, or cast iron skillet, heat 2 tablespoons (30ml) olive oil medium-high heat until shimmering. Add potatoes to skillet, with one cut side down, in a single layer and evenly spaced, and season with salt. Cook, without moving, until potatoes begin to brown around edges, 4 to 5 minutes. Continue to cook, rotating and swirling pan gently to promote even browning and prevent sticking, until potatoes are browned on bottom side, 2 to 3 minutes longer, adjusting heat as needed if some of the pieces brown too quickly.

Large pieces of potato cooking in a skillet.
Vicky Wasik

Using a thin metal spatula, flip potatoes onto second flat side. Continue to cook until browned on second side, 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, and cook until aromatic, about 1 minute. Add remaining olive oil, chicken stock (or water), 3 tablespoons (45ml) lemon juice, and oregano. Bring to a boil, swirling pan occasionally, and season with salt to taste.

Browning potatoes in skillet, then adding stock, lemon juice, and oregano.
Vicky Wasik

Transfer skillet to oven and roast until potatoes are completely tender, offering little to no resistance when poked with a paring knife, and most of the stock has evaporated, 25 to 30 minutes.

Roasted potatoes in a skillet
Vicky Wasik

Remove from oven, add remaining 1 tablespoon (15ml) lemon juice, and stir to combine. Season with salt to taste, then serve.

Lemon potatoes on a serving plate
Vicky Wasik

Special Equipment

12-inch stainless-steel sauté pan or skillet, or cast iron skillet

Make-Ahead and Storage

Patates lemonates can be made in advance and held at room temperature for up to 3 hours, or refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Reheat gently on the stovetop or in a 275°F (135°C) oven before serving.

Pommes de Terre Fondantes (Fondant Potatoes)

For the best French melting potatoes, cook them like meat.

Closeup of a serving platter of fondant potatoes with a ramekin of flaky sea salt on the side.
Vicky Wasik

“What if we cooked potatoes like meat?”

That’s the basic premise of pommes de terre fondantes, or melting potatoes, another classic of French spud cookery that combines elements of traditional French braising and butter-basting techniques. Unlike laborious and finicky dishes like pommes Anna or dauphine, fondant potatoes are remarkably simple to make: Sear potatoes in fat until well-browned, then simmer them with stock, aromatics, and plenty of butter until they’re creamy and spoon-tender. That’s it. It’s the kind of side dish that you can actually pull off without much fuss on a weeknight, but it’s also worthy of a holiday or special occasion. 

Start by peeling and trimming the ends off of small Yukon Golds—their firm, waxy flesh is ideal for braising and roasting—before halving them crosswise to produce pieces with two flat sides that are well-suited for searing. Because we want to brown the potatoes before braising them, it’s important to dry them thoroughly and start them in a hot skillet with plenty of fat. Any neutral oil will work for this step, but if you have any rendered animal fat kicking around, this is a great opportunity to use it. Duck fat, schmaltz, and beef fat are all great options that'll lend rich depth of flavor to the potatoes—just avoid whole butter because the sugars and milk solids will burn before the potatoes have time to brown. If you don’t have fat already rendered, but plan on serving this side with something like a steak or a roast; you can render trimmings or do an initial sear on the roast's fat cap and produce enough fat for browning the potatoes, get them in the oven, and then turn your attention back to the meat.

Potatoes in a pan that have been seared on one side, with butter foaming.
Vicky Wasik

Searing the potato pieces is a lot like the technique for searing scallops: sear them broad side down without moving them until they begin to brown around the edges and release from the pan when you swirl the skillet, then, when they're a deep golden brown, flip them over and add a generous amount of butter. This produces a great sear on the first side, and then starts the process of building the braising sauce. Thyme and crushed garlic cloves go in next to infuse the butter, for a butter-basted steak vibe. But unlike something like French brown butter potatoes, it’s not all about cooking in fat for pommes fondantes. We need to add stock in order to get them to the proper creamy texture. 

Closeup of potatoes simmering in a pan with stock, butter, thyme, and garlic
Vicky Wasik

If you have a batch of gelatin-rich homemade stock stored in your freezer, use that. Otherwise, go with our standard method for lending richness to thin, store-bought broth by enriching it with unflavored gelatin. Bring everything to a boil, then transfer the skillet to the oven to finish cooking. The potatoes soak up a good amount of the stock, which also reduces into a spoon-coating sauce. Once the potatoes are fully tender, remove them to a serving platter and finish the sauce on the stovetop, adding a little more stock if needed to achieve a smooth emulsion. This is a simple show-stopper of a side that proves that French doesn’t have to mean fussy.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 450°F (230°C). Place stock in a liquid measuring cup or small bowl and sprinkle gelatin over top. Set aside.

Sprinkling gelatin over chicken stock
Vicky Wasik

Using a sharp knife, cut off ends of potatoes to give them flat sides, then halve potatoes crosswise. Pat dry with paper towels.

Cutting potatoes for fondant potatoes
Vicky Wasik

In a 12-inch stainless steel straight-sided sauté pan or skillet, or cast iron skillet, heat oil or fat over medium-high heat until just beginning to smoke. Season potatoes with salt and pepper and add to skillet, broad side down, in a single layer with space between each piece. Cook, without moving, until potatoes begin to brown around edges, 4 to 5 minutes. Continue to cook, rotating and swirling pan gently to promote even browning and prevent sticking, until potatoes are deeply browned on bottom side, 3 to 4 minutes longer, adjusting heat as needed if some of the pieces brown too quickly.

Searing potatoes in a large sauté pan
Vicky Wasik

Using a thin metal spatula, flip potatoes onto second flat side. Add butter and cook, swirling constantly, until butter is melted and begins to foam, about 1 minute. Add garlic and thyme, and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add stock and bring to a boil.

Turning browned potatoes in pan, adding butter, aromatics, and chicken stock.
Vicky Wasik

Transfer skillet to oven and roast until potatoes are completely tender, offering little to no resistance when poked with a paring knife, and liquid is reduced to a saucy consistency, 25 to 30 minutes.

Testing doneness of potatoes with a paring knife.
Vicky Wasik

Return skillet to stovetop. Using a thin metal spatula or tongs, transfer potatoes to a serving platter, broad side up, leaving sauce in the skillet; discard garlic. Bring sauce to a simmer over medium heat and cook, swirling and stirring constantly, until sauce is emulsified, 30 seconds to 1 minute. If emulsion appears broken or sauce is too thick, add more stock or water, 1 tablespoon (15ml) at a time, until you reach the desired consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper and pour sauce over and around potatoes. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt (if using, otherwise season with a little more kosher salt), and serve.

Finishing sauce on stovetop
Vicky Wasik

Special Equipment

12-inch straight-sided sauté pan or cast iron skillet.

Notes

If you happen to have any schmaltz, rendered beef, or duck fat available, we recommend using it for browning the potatoes in place of vegetable oil in step 3.

Make-Ahead and Storage

This dish is best enjoyed immediately, but leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Reheat with additional stock, up to 1/4 cup (60ml), to loosen and then re-emulsify the sauce.

Crispy Baked Potato Wedges

Crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, oven fries don’t have to be forgettable.

Closeup of a serving plate of roasted potato wedges with a ramekin of ketchup.
Vicky Wasik

If restaurants priced menu items based on how much of a pain in the neck it would be for diners to make those dishes at home, French fries would quickly supplant caviar and blini as a special occasion splurge. I love a good fry, but that love quickly fades if I'm the one on the hook for the deep-frying and subsequent kitchen cleanup. It’s hard to justify the hassle at home, especially for something I can easily and affordably enjoy at all kinds of dining establishments steps away from my apartment. But what about the home-cooked meals that really could do with a pile of crispy, fluffy fries? Those offer air fryer evangelists an opportunity to make their case, and I’m not here to talk them down. For those of us who don’t have the space or budget for another countertop appliance, there’s the classic, although often underwhelming, oven-baked potato wedge.

Potato wedges usually feel like a concession of defeat, an acceptance of potato mediocrity. I know that jojos, the battered and pressure-fried wedges sold at chicken joints, have their diehard fans, but I've yet to encounter a devoted following for the oven fry. Part of that can be attributed to poor PR. Comparing oven-roasted potatoes to fried spuds is unfair: It’s impossible to achieve identical results from such vastly different cooking methods. But with the right technique we can come pretty darn close, and we can make potato wedges with a crunchy coating, and a tender, fluffy interior, without having to resort to deep-frying.

Overhead of a plate of potato wedges with a ramekin of ketchup.
Vicky Wasik

The simplest potato wedge recipes call for tossing raw pieces of potato with oil and seasonings, spreading them out on a baking sheet, and roasting them until golden brown. Unfortunately, this method doesn’t yield very good results. As with a French fry or classic roast potato, the time it takes for the center to be perfectly cooked through and the time it takes for the exterior to become well-browned don't line up. You either end up with wedges that are underdone in the middle or desiccated on the surface. Par-cooking the wedges before roasting is a must. 

Following Kenji’s blueprint for British-style roast potatoes seemed like the logical course of action here. Par-boil potatoes in alkaline water to help break down the surface of the wedges, then toss them aggressively in a bowl to rough them up and develop a starchy mashed-potato like coating that crisps up when roasted. With smaller chunks of potato, this method works like a charm, but during early rounds of testing, too many of my wedges ended up breaking apart into potato debris.

I tried a gentler approach, scraping the surface of the blanched potatoes with a fork to develop the starchy coating rather than tossing them in a bowl. This felt too fussy, but it also didn’t produce the kind of crust I was after. Next, I tried coating raw and blanched wedges with potato starch and cornstarch slurries to see if they could provide the right crispy exterior. They certainly achieve crispy results, but the starch slurry coatings had an artificial glassy feel that felt out of place and contrived for what should be a straightforward side.

Potato wedges arranged on an oiled baking sheet before going in the oven.
Vicky Wasik

I returned to our roast potato method, with a simple alteration: I cut down the initial blanching time as much as possible, simmering the potatoes just long enough to soften their surfaces, but keeping the center firm enough that the wedges could withstand a little rough treatment. Seven minutes did the trick, which gets the wedges to the texture of a firm poached pear in the middle. After tossing them to develop that coating, I arrange them on a generously oiled baking sheet. Spreading oil on the baking sheet, rather than tossing the potatoes with fat in the bowl, gives the wedges a more fry-like crust, as the pieces cook in an even layer of oil in the oven. To ensure that the oil is distributed evenly on the baking sheet, I borrowed a trick from my former colleague at America’s Test Kitchen, Lan Lam, who found that spraying a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray before coating it with oil kept the fat from pooling on the tray. The lecithin in cooking spray, which acts as a surfactant, keeps the oil in an even layer.

All that I had left to do was roast the potatoes on high heat until browned on one side and then flip them onto their second flat side and cook them until golden brown. With Yukon Golds, the interior reaches a pudding-like creaminess that doesn’t translate well for an oven fry. But with russets, you get the perfect balance between a crunchy shell and a tender fluffy interior. It may not be a true fry, but it's pretty, pretty good. 

Adjust oven rack to lower position and preheat oven to 450°F (230°C). Spray a rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray. Pour oil over baking sheet and tilt until evenly coated with oil. Using a sharp knife, halve potatoes lengthwise. Place potato halves cut side down on cutting board and cut lengthwise into 1- to 1 1/2-inch-thick wedges (3 to 4 wedges per half potato, depending on size).

Preparing baking sheet with oil and cutting potatoes into wedges
Vicky Wasik

In a large pot, bring water to a boil over high heat. Add salt, baking soda, and potatoes and stir to combine. Return to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer, and cook until potatoes are barely tender, offering some resistance when poked with a paring knife or cake tester (the texture should be similar to that of a firm poached pear or lightly cooked apple), about 7 minutes from when potatoes are added to the pot. Drain potatoes, taking care not to break the wedges, and transfer to a large bowl.

Vicky Wasik

Season potatoes with salt and pepper and toss to coat, shaking bowl roughly, until a thick layer of mashed potato–like paste has built up on the surface of the wedges. Transfer wedges to prepared baking sheet, arranging them in a single layer with one flat cut side down, and space between each piece.

Roughly tossing blanched potato wedges in a bowl to develop a mashed potato-like coating, then spreading wedges on the prepared baking sheet.
Vicky Wasik

Transfer to oven and roast, without moving, until potatoes are golden brown on bottom side, 18 to 22 minutes. Using a thin, flexible metal spatula, flip potatoes onto second flat cut side and continue to roast until golden brown on second side, 18 to 22 minutes longer.

Turning wedges onto second cut side halfway through roasting.
Vicky Wasik

Transfer baking sheet to a heatproof surface, season wedges with salt and pepper to taste, and toss on baking sheet to evenly coat. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate and blot away excess oil. Discard paper towels and serve with your favorite condiments.

A serving plate of roasted potato wedges with a ramekin of ketchup.
Vicky Wasik

Special Equipment

Rimmed baking sheet

Make-Ahead and Storage

Potato wedges are best enjoyed immediately. Leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Focaccia di Recco

A thin and crispy focaccia stuffed with cheese.

Overhead of a focaccia di Recco on a serving board
Vicky Wasik

Focaccia is synonymous with Liguria, the northwestern coastal Italian region also famous for its pesto and Pixar child sea monsters. If you were to ask someone to describe the platonic ideal of focaccia, they most likely would describe a plush, yeasted dough, burnished to a golden brown in the oven, soaked with fragrant olive oil, and sprinkled with sea salt. That’s focaccia genovese, from the region’s capital, and it’s fantastic. But there are plenty of other local styles of focaccia that are worthy of admiration and attention, chief among them being focaccia col formaggio, or focaccia with cheese, from the town of Recco, which is a few miles south of Genoa.

Focaccia di Recco is the ultimate zag to the focaccia most of us are familiar with. Instead of a tender, open-crumb bread, this is a cracker-thin, crunchy, gooey, cheese-filled snack, made with an unleavened dough that’s closer to paratha dough or flour tortilla masa than the kind of high-hydration dough typically used for yeasted focaccia. The dough gets stretched into two paper-thin sheets that are draped over a large round metal baking tray, with dollops of creamy Stracchino cheese sandwiched in between them, before getting drizzled with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. A quick bake in a hot oven yields a crisp crust that still has a tender chew, with a bubbling cheesy center. 

Closeup of finished focaccia di Recco cut into pieces.
Vicky Wasik

With no fermentation and proofing times to monitor, making the dough for focaccia di Recco is a breeze. I start by stirring together bread flour, salt, and a pinch of sugar with water and a generous amount of olive oil to form a shaggy dough. Sugar typically isn’t added to this dough, but to compensate for the lower temperatures of home ovens compared to those used in focaccerie and sciamadde (casual Ligurian eateries), I add a little bit to help with browning. I turn the dough onto the counter, knead it by hand until it’s mostly smooth, and then divide it into four portions for making two focacce. A long rest at room temperature gives the dough time to relax, making it easier to roll out and stretch.

Stretching dough
Vicky Wasik

The high proportion of olive oil in the dough—ten percent for those who are into using baker’s percentages—also helps make it easy to work with by limiting gluten formation and giving it extensibility. The high protein content of bread flour gives the dough enough strength to allow it to be stretched gossamer thin without tearing. 

Typically, the dough is stretched over round copper baking trays two feet in diameter, similar to the ones used for making farinata, another Ligurian specialty. This obviously isn’t a piece of home kitchen equipment, so I developed this recipe to work with affordable round metal pizza trays and a traditional rimmed baking sheet. Place the baking tray on a stable elevated surface, like a large mixing bowl, before stretching the first portion of dough over it. This bottom portion of dough is slightly larger than the top crust, so that it can be rolled and stretched a little bit thicker. With the bottom dough taken care of, it’s time to dollop the cheese.

Packages of Stracchino cheese.
Vicky Wasik

Stracchino, also known as Crescenza or Stracchino di Crescenza, is a creamy, soft, cow's milk cheese from the nearby region of Lombardy, with a mild, slightly tart flavor. The inclusion of this “imported” cheese in focaccia col formaggio makes it a bit of an extravagance compared to the more humble olive oil or onion-topped versions found in other parts of Liguria. Nowadays you can find Stracchino at plenty of cheese shops and Italian specialty markets like Eataly, and, like most things, it’s also available online. If you can’t find Stracchino, I tested with both Taleggio, a more aged and funky washed rind cheese from the same region, and a Camembert-style cheese, and they both made for decent substitutes. Keep in mind that those cheeses are more aged, so they boast a more assertive flavor and firmer texture than Stracchino.

Tearing holes in the top layer of dough for focaccia di Recco
Vicky Wasik

Whatever you end up using, dollop it over the surface of the dough, and don’t be shy with the cheese. Next, roll out and stretch the second, smaller portion of dough. The goal here is to make the top crust as thin as possible, before stretching it over the Stracchino-topped dough. I then tear small holes in this top cover of dough, which allow steam to escape during baking so that the focaccia can crisp evenly.

Removing overhanging dough with the edge of a rolling pin
Vicky Wasik

Remove any overhanging dough by running your rolling pin around the edge of the baking tray; elevating the tray on a bowl gives you the proper angle to pull this off (you can also just use a small paring knife or scissors). Add a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of salt and then put the focaccia into a full-blast oven, ideally on a Baking Steel or stone for maximum browning of the bottom crust, and bake it until the top crust is browned and the cheese is bubbling through the vented holes. Cut it into squares and serve this focaccia di Recco as the ultimate aperitivo snack.

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position. Place Baking Steel or stone on it and preheat oven to highest possible temperature, 500° to 550°F (260° to 290°C).

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt until thoroughly combined. Add water and olive oil and stir with a wooden spoon until no dry flour remains and a shaggy dough forms, about 2 minutes. Knead with hands if needed to bring dough together. Let dough rest for 5 minutes.

Mixing dough in bowl with a wooden spoon
Vicky Wasik

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and, using floured hands, knead until dough is mostly smooth and no longer sticks to your hands, 2 to 4 minutes. Dust work surface, dough, and hands with more flour as needed throughout the kneading process. Weigh dough, it should weigh approximately 900g (2 pounds). Divide into four total portions: two weighing 250g and two weighing 200g.

Kneading dough and dividing dough into portions
Vicky Wasik

Working with one portion at a time, cup dough between palms of your hands and work it in circular motions to form a smooth ball. Repeat with remaining dough. Cover dough with a clean kitchen towel or by overturning the bowl used to make the dough, or transfer to a lidded proofing container, and allow to rest at room temperature for at least 45 minutes and up to 1 hour. Alternatively, transfer dough balls to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

Forming dough portions into balls
Vicky Wasik

Lightly oil a 15-inch round pizza tray or rimmed baking sheet and place on top of a large bowl. Flour your work surface. Working with one 250g portion of dough, flour surface of dough and, using a rolling pin, roll into a 12-inch circle if using a round pizza tray or a 12- by 9-inch rectangle if using a rimmed baking sheet. While rolling, occasionally rotate and lift dough, adding more flour as needed, to ensure dough doesn't stick. Gently stretch dough into a 16- to 17-inch circle or 18- by 13-inch rectangle, about 1/16-inch thick, by draping over knuckles and gently stretching. Transfer dough to prepared pizza tray, stretching it so that there is an even 1- to 2-inch overhang of dough, then gently press it so that it is flush with the pan.

Stretching dough portion into a round and draping over round pizza tray
Vicky Wasik

Using clean hands or two spoons, dollop half of the Stracchino (200g; 7 ounces) in 1 tablespoon (15g) pieces over the surface of the dough.

Stracchino pieces placed over surface of stretched dough
Vicky Wasik

Using a rolling pin, roll out one 200g portion of dough in the same way as the previous portion. Gently stretch dough into a circle or rectangle (it should be thinner than the previous portion) by draping over knuckles and gently stretching. Place dough directly on top of the Stracchino-topped dough, stretching it so that it covers the entire surface, with a 1-inch overhang on all sides.

Stretching second portion of dough over stracchino-topped dough
Vicky Wasik

Using your fingers, gently tear small openings in the top portion of dough, around the pieces of stracchino. Gently press down on the top portion of dough, working around the pieces of stracchino, so that it touches the bottom portion of dough. Hold the rolling pin at an angle, flush against the edge of the pizza tray, and work it around the entire edge of the tray to cut off the overhanging dough; excess dough can be saved for making more focaccia, or discarded. Drizzle surface of the dough with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with sea salt.

Tearing holes in the top layer of dough, cutting off excess dough, and drizzling with olive oil.
Vicky Wasik

Transfer tray to oven, positioning it on top of Baking Steel or stone. Bake until dough is deep golden brown and cheese is melted, rotating tray 180 degrees halfway through baking, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer focaccia to a wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet. Allow focaccia to cool for at least 30 seconds, then transfer to a cutting board, slice, and serve immediately.

Finished focaccia di Recco.
Vicky Wasik

Once tray or baking sheet is cool enough to handle, wipe clean with a paper towel. Repeat steps 5 through 9 with remaining portions of dough and stracchino.

Special Equipment

Baking Steel, digital scale, 15-inch round pizza baking tray or rimmed baking sheet, wire rack.

Notes

Stracchino, which is also known as Crescenza or Stracchino di Crescenza, can be found at specialty cheese shops and Italian markets such as Eataly, or online. If Stracchino is unavailable, you can substitute with Taleggio or a soft, washed rind cheese such as Camembert. These cheeses are more aged, with a funkier and more assertive flavor than Stracchino, so the results won't be quite the same, but they will still make a tasty focaccia col formaggio.

You can make this recipe without a Baking Steel or stone; the bottom crust just won't be as crisp.

The recipe can be halved to make one focaccia.

Make-Ahead and Storage

The finished focaccia is best enjoyed immediately. Leftover focaccia can be wrapped in foil and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Reheat in a 325°F (165°C) oven. The dough can be made in advance and refrigerated in an airtight container for up 24 hours. Bring to room temperature before rolling out.

Risotto ai Gamberi (Shrimp Risotto)

A quickly cooked, deeply flavorful stock is the key to great shrimp risotto.

Overhead of a plate of shrimp risotto
Vicky Wasik

Risotto cookery has long been a hot topic of debate around these parts. “Stirring is for suckers; it’s so tedious!” “Rinse the starch off!” “Use a pressure cooker!” “Italian grandmothers are full of it!” It’s Marriage Story meme gold. I’m not interested in stirring up more controversy over the best way to cook risotto, I just really enjoy stirring rice.

One of risotto’s best qualities is that it’s a blank canvas for flavor; how you choose to paint it is a matter of preference. This recipe uses a more classic cooking approach than the innovative methods used in other risotto recipes on Serious Eats, and it produces a shrimp risotto brimming with deep shellfish flavor.

The easiest way to impart flavor to the rice is by cooking it in an intensely aromatic stock. Oftentimes this can be accomplished by simply infusing a neutral chicken or vegetable stock with assertive ingredients like dried porcini for mushroom risotto, or saffron for risotto alla milanese. Morsels folded into risotto, like seared fresh mushrooms, provide pops of flavor and texture in the final dish, but the stock is really doing the heavy lifting. For shellfish and seafood-based risottos, making stock from scratch is the way to go.

The Quick and the Head: Keys to Great Shrimp Stock

Shrimp stock simmering in a Dutch oven
Vicky Wasik

The most important part of making a good shrimp stock is using the right shrimp for the job: head-on shrimp. The shells and heads are rich in glutamates and nucleotides that contribute savory aromas, along with sugars and proteins that contribute to Maillard browning when subjected to heat. Long story short: shells and heads equal flavor. Some of these flavor compounds are nonvolatile, meaning that they don’t dissipate during cooking, but the primary compounds responsible for shrimpy flavor are very volatile, which means that they evaporate during cooking. What does that mean for making shrimp stock? Just that it’s a very quick process. After cooking the shells and heads in olive oil (some of the aromas we’re after are fat-soluble, and the oil coaxes them out and then traps them) along with aromatics and umami-rich tomato paste, I add water and simmer the stock for just ten minutes before straining out the solids. The most intensely flavored shrimp stock is a quick-cooked one.

Shrimp heads and shells wit aromatics in a Dutch oven for shrimp stock.
Vicky Wasik

During recipe development I conducted side-by-side tests of risotto made with shrimp stock that used just shrimp shells and stock made with shells and heads. The head-on shrimp stock risotto was the clear winner—it boasts a far richer and deeper shrimp flavor, even though I used the same weight of shell-on and head-on shrimp, meaning that there was more shrimp meat in the shell-on version.

We always recommend purchasing individually quick frozen shrimp as opposed to shrimp that have already been thawed (most shrimp available for purchase are frozen as soon as they are harvested to preserve texture and flavor). This is particularly important for head-on shrimp, as the heads contain enzymes that can make the shrimp’s meat mushy. Freezing halts this process, so you’re much better off buying frozen shrimp, which allows you to control the thawing process. Thaw the shrimp as close to when you plan to make the risotto as possible. 

Stirring the Pot: Classically Cooked Risotto Isn't a Slog

Stirring risotto in a saucepan
Vicky Wasik

With the stock squared away, we can turn to the rice cookery. I start by sweating finely chopped onion in a wide-bottomed saucier (the sloped walls of a saucier or Daniel’s favorite pasta pan are perfect for risotto, and a 5-quart capacity is ideal, but even a 3-quart will work). If you don’t have a saucepan in that style, a Dutch oven or even a skillet will work just fine. I then toss in the rice (I’m partial to carnaroli) and toast it until the grains smell nutty and start to look like ice cubes—translucent around the edges and opaque in the center. 

I add a pinch of red pepper flakes and deglaze with white wine before adding a cup of tomato passata and a ladleful of the shrimp stock. Tomato is a choice, not a requirement, for shrimp risotto. You can omit tomato paste in the stock and the passata in the risotto if you prefer an in bianco preparation. I find that the savory, sweet, and acidic notes of tomato pair very well with the deep shellfish aroma in the stock.

Now comes the fun or tedious part, depending on who you ask. I love the rhythmic process of constantly stirring and tossing the pot as the rice absorbs each addition of stock. I find it soothing, and it's also a great excuse for a little alone time in the kitchen. “Don’t talk to me right now, I’m making risotto!” is generally considered socially acceptable behavior. Take advantage of it. 

Keep adding stock, keep stirring and tossing, and in a little under 15 minutes the rice grains will have swelled, becoming tender around the edges, with a firm raw bite at the center. While I said earlier that I don’t want to argue over the merits of different risotto methods, I think it’s worth noting that in my experience I’ve found that the classic cooking method maintains that textural integrity of the rice much better than no-stir or pressure-cooker risottos. The grains stay more distinctly separate while being suspended in liquid, while the other methods produce rice that is slightly blown out and melds more into the stock. 

I stir in the shrimp and more stock, keeping the pan on the heat just long enough to cook the shrimp through, at which point the rice will have reached the perfect doneness, toeing the line between firm and crunchy at the very center of each grain. I finish with a handful of chopped parsley, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a splash of stock.

A plate of shrimp risotto
Vicky Wasik

This is the point where timing is everything. You need to plate the risotto quickly, on warmed plates (not bowls, if you’re being a purist). It’s important to keep in mind that no matter how fast you move, the risotto will tighten up in the time it takes to get it from the saucepan to the plate and then into the mouths of your dinner guests. So, you need to hedge, and have the risotto at a looser consistency than you are comfortable with. The term that always gets used to describe the proper flowing texture of risotto is all’onda, or “to the wave.” When tossing and stirring the rice in the pot, it should be loose enough to make waves, and quickly fill in the negative space whenever you drag a spatula across the bottom of the pan. Right before plating, make it just a little bit looser than that. Not swimming in broth, but it should definitely be high tide in the saucepan.

Many risottos are finished with butter and cheese to provide extra creaminess to the rice. The issue with dairy is that it can also mute the other flavors in the dish. For this recipe, I prefer to let the deep shrimp flavor of the stock shine. This risotto is plenty rich as is.

Peel and devein shrimp, reserving the shrimp shells; if using head-on shrimp, twist off the heads and reserve with the shells. Using a sharp knife, cut shrimp crosswise into 3/4-inch pieces (3 to 4 pieces per shrimp, depending on size). Transfer to a small bowl and season with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Refrigerate shrimp until it’s time to add them to the risotto.

Cutting shrimp into pieces
Vicky Wasik

In a medium Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons (30ml) olive oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add reserved shrimp shells and cook, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until shells turn deep orange and oil is rust-colored and aromatic, about 5 minutes. Optional: If you and your guests aren't put off by people sucking shrimp heads at the dinner table, remove one to two shrimp heads per person (depending on size), and reserve them for garnishing the finished risotto. Just don't get greedy and fish out too many; the heads are the main source of flavor for the shrimp stock.

Shrimp shells and heads browning in a Dutch oven.
Vicky Wasik

Add diced onion and garlic and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until onion begins to soften and turn brown around the edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Add tomato paste and parsley sprigs and cook, stirring constantly, until tomato paste turns rust-colored and begins to stick to the bottom of the pot, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add 1/4 cup (60ml) wine and, using a wooden spoon, scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.

Cooking aromatics in Dutch oven for shrimp stock
Vicky Wasik

Add water, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, set a fine-mesh strainer over a large bowl. Strain stock through prepared strainer, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible; discard solids. If you have a 3- or 5-quart saucier or our recommended pasta pan, you will use that to cook the risotto. Otherwise, wipe out the Dutch oven.

Simmering and straining shrimp stock
Vicky Wasik

In a 3- or 5-quart saucier or now-empty Dutch oven, heat remaining 2 tablespoons (30ml) olive oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add remaining finely chopped onion, season lightly with salt, and cook, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent and soft but not browned, 5 to 7 minutes.

Cooking onion for risotto
Vicky Wasik

Increase heat to medium-high, add rice, and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until rice is evenly coated in oil and toasted but not browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Rice should smell nutty and grains should start to look like tiny ice cubes: translucent around the edges and cloudy in the center. Add red pepper flakes (if using) and remaining 1/2 cup (120ml) wine. Cook until wine is almost completely evaporated, about 30 seconds.

Toasting rice for risotto
Vicky Wasik

Add tomato passata, 1/2 cup (120ml) of shrimp stock, and season lightly with salt. Cook, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, until liquid is mostly absorbed, 1 to 2 minutes. Continue to cook, adding stock in 1/2-cup increments while stirring constantly, until rice is softened on the exterior but still slightly raw and crunchy at the center, 13 to 15 minutes.

Cooking risotto with stock and passata
Vicky Wasik

Add shrimp and another 1/2 cup stock, reduce heat to medium, and continue to cook until shrimp and rice are just cooked through, about 2 minutes. There should be enough liquid in the pot that the rice flows when you stir it. Keep in mind that the risotto will tighten up in the time it takes to plate and serve it, so adjust with more stock as needed to achieve a free-flowing consistency, leaving it looser than you think it should be (you may not need to use all of the stock). Season with salt to taste and stir in chopped parsley. Divide between warmed plates and serve immediately, passing lemon wedges at the table.

Adding shrimp and parsley to finish risotto
Vicky Wasik

Special Equipment

Dutch oven; fine-mesh strainer; 3- or 5-quart saucier or pasta pan

Notes

Head-on shrimp make the most flavorful shrimp stock and are well worth seeking out for this recipe. If you’re lucky enough to have access to genuinely fresh or live shrimp, use those (please note that we’re very jealous of you). For everyone else, we recommend purchasing individually quick frozen (IQF) shrimp, rather than shrimp that have already been thawed. This is especially important for head-on shrimp, as the heads contain enzymes that can render the shrimp meat mushy; freezing halts this process. Thaw shrimp as close to cooking as possible. High quality, sustainably farmed, frozen head-on shrimp can be purchased online from seafood purveyors such as Wulf’s Fish.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Shrimp stock can be made in advance and refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 1 month. However, because the shrimp themselves should be cooked as soon as possible once thawed (and should never be re-frozen), we don't recommend making the stock more than 1 day in advance. If making the stock in advance, do not cut up and season the shrimp in step 1 until you are ready to start cooking the risotto; instead, arrange the peeled and deveined shrimp in a single layer on a small tray, tightly wrap it with plastic, and refrigerate until ready to use.

Fritto Misto di Mare (Fried Mixed Seafood)

Crispy fried seafood the Italian way.

A large platter of fritto misto di mare with fried shrimp, squid, and smelt.
Vicky Wasik

Fritto misto di mare is classic coastal Italian fare, served at seaside restaurants all over the peninsula. It’s a dish that embodies the “don’t mess with a good thing” approach that Italian cuisine is famous for: locally caught seafood is lightly floured, fried, and served with just a squeeze of lemon. This version, known as a frittura di paranza in Campania and other parts of Southern Italy, features crispy shell-on shrimp, tender squid, and small whole fish. Paired with a chilled Falanghina, it's a dinner party showstopper.

Sourcing the right seafood is arguably the hardest part of this recipe. There are no set rules for what must be included, but the dish is meant to evoke the bounty hauled in by small Italian fishing boats known as paranze, which usually includes a mixture of crustaceans like shrimp, cephalopods like calamari and cuttlefish, and small fin fish like anchovies. Squid and shrimp are relatively easy to come by in the US, but the fresh Mediterranean sardines and anchovies that are famously fished off the Amalfi coast aren't. North American smelt, which are typically sold already cleaned, work well as a stand-in, even though they have a much milder flavor. Of course, you can also omit fish entirely and just make a shrimp and squid frittura.

A closeup of fried calamari as part of a fritto misto platter.
Vicky Wasik

Shell-on shrimp are ideal for fritto misto. The shells protect the shrimp meat from overcooking, while also imparting flavor thanks to glutamates and nucleotides in the shells that are absorbed by the meat during frying. On top of that, the shells crisp up when fried, providing a crunchy and completely edible coating without the need for a heavy dredge. Medium to large shrimp work best for this recipe because they fry up quickly, and their relatively thin shells provide just the right amount of crunch. We always recommend purchasing individually quick frozen shrimp as opposed to shrimp that have already been thawed (most shrimp available for purchase are frozen as soon as they are harvested to preserve texture and flavor). This is particularly important for head-on shrimp, as the heads contain enzymes that can make the shrimp’s meat mushy, and freezing halts this process.

The dredge for a frittura di paranza is simple. Traditionally, the seafood is tossed in semola rimacinata (finely ground semolina flour) or all-purpose flour until just coated and then fried. It's much lighter than the dredge used for Italian-American-style fried calamari, which needs to be able to stand up to being dunked and dipped in tomato sauce. To keep the coating to a dusting, I skip the milk-soaking step that Tim uses in his calamari recipe, but I kept the additions of cornstarch and baking powder, which help keep the seafood crisp once it comes out of the hot oil.

Frying the seafood in batches at a relatively high temperature ensures that it all cook quickly and evenly. During testing I found that the shell-on shrimp maintained crispness longest after frying, followed by squid. The higher moisture content of smelt causes them to lose their crunchy exterior quickest, so I fry them last while holding the fried shrimp and calamari in a warm oven. Once everything's fried, pile the seafood on a platter with lemon wedges and serve it up with some wine alongside.

Using kitchen shears or a sharp paring knife, cut through shrimp shells and devein shrimp without removing the shells. Pat dry with paper towels and set aside.

Cutting through shrimp shell and deveining shrimp without removing the shell
Vicky Wasik

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 200°F (95°C). Set a wire rack in a rimmed baking sheet and place a colander on top of the rack. Set a second wire rack in another rimmed baking sheet and line rack with paper towels. In a large Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat to 375°F (190°C).

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, and baking powder until thoroughly combined. Pat squid dry with paper towels and transfer to dredge mixture. Toss to evenly coat, then gently shake off excess flour and transfer squid to colander set over wire rack. Shake colander to sift out any excess flour, then transfer squid in a single layer to wire rack. Repeat process with the smelt, followed by the shrimp.

Dredging squid, smelt, and shrimp.
Vicky Wasik

Add shrimp to oil and fry until light golden brown, stirring occasionally to prevent shrimp from sticking together, 2 to 3 minutes. Using a spider skimmer or slotted spoon, transfer shrimp to prepared paper towel–lined rack, season lightly with salt, then transfer to oven to keep warm.

Frying shrimp in a Dutch oven until golden brown.
Vicky Wasik

Return oil to 375°F (190°C) and add half the squid. Fry until golden brown, stirring occasionally to prevent pieces from sticking to each other, about 3 minutes. Transfer squid to rack with shrimp, season lightly with salt, and return to oven to keep warm. Repeat with remaining squid.

Frying squid in a Dutch oven.
Vicky Wasik

Return oil to 375°F (190°C) and add the smelt. Fry until smelt are pale golden and just cooked through, about 3 minutes. Transfer to rack with fried seafood and season lightly with salt. Transfer seafood to a serving platter lined with parchment or butcher paper and serve immediately with lemon wedges.

Frying smelt in a Dutch oven.
Vicky Wasik

Special Equipment

Two rimmed baking sheets and two wire racks; Dutch oven; spider skimmer.

Notes

Make sure to use shell-on, if not head-on shrimp for this recipe. The shells help prevent the shrimp meat from overcooking and impart flavor to the meat, thanks to glutamates and nucleotides in the shells that are absorbed by the meat during frying. On top of that, the shells crisp up when fried, providing a crunchy and completely edible coating without the need for a heavy dredge. Fried shrimp heads are delicious as well.

Sardines and other small fish commonly used for fritto misto di mare are generally unavailable in the United States, but smelt make a very good substitute. Smelt are generally sold cleaned (heads removed and gutted). Frozen smelt can be purchased online from purveyors such as Wulf's Fish.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Like most fried foods, fritto misto is best enjoyed immediately.

Baccalà alla Napoletana (Neapolitan-Style Braised Salt Cod With Tomatoes, Olives, and Capers)

For the best braised baccalà, make your own salt cod.

Closeup overhead of a skillet of baccalà alla napoletana.
Vicky Wasik

The winter holiday season in Italy is also prime baccalà season. In Central and Southern Italy, salt cod features heavily on Christmas Eve menus—you can find it battered and fried as an appetizer, flaked and tossed with potatoes and onion as a salad, simmered into a tomato sauce for pasta, or, in this case, braised in large fillets as a secondo. In Livorno, a seaside town in Tuscany, baccalà is traditionally braised with tomato and potato for a hearty main course. In Southern Italy, you’re more likely to find it cooked in a briny tomato sauce with capers and olives, in the same style as swordfish alla ghiotta

Marrying salt cod with salted capers and brined olives may sound like trouble. As I found out during recipe development, the dish can easily become an inedible salt bomb. Round after round of testing with store-bought baccalà yielded inconsistent results. Even when I stretched out the soaking time for the salt cod to four days, I couldn’t account for differences in salinity levels between salt cod producers; one batch would turn out perfectly and another, soaked for the same amount of time, would be a disaster.

For most recipes, slight differences in salt levels don’t end up being that noticeable. The intensity of salt cod in a brandade, for example, is tempered by potato and dairy. But in baccalà alla napoletana, there’s no wiggle room. I was also running into problems with the pieces of cod themselves. This dish is meant to feature meaty, thick portions of baccalà, but here in the US, shoppers rarely have a say about the size of the pieces they purchase, and often end up with thin scraps from the tail or belly. That wasn’t going to work. In need of a solution, Daniel suggested that I just make salt cod myself.

Cod fillets getting packed in salt in in a baking dish
Vicky Wasik

Curing often sounds like a daunting project, but salt-curing fish is remarkably easy, and it doesn’t get much simpler than salt cod. To be clear, the goal for making baccalà for this recipe wasn’t to produce a facsimile of traditional, fully dried salt cod that can be stored for months. Instead, I wanted to cure cod long enough to deeply season and firm up the flesh, transforming it from soft to silky with a slight chew. In his cookbook My Portugal, Chef George Mendes provides a simple method for curing salt cod that gave me just the results I was looking for.

I pack thick cod fillets in kosher salt in a baking dish and refrigerate them for two days, redistributing salt as needed to keep the fish completely covered (the fillets absorb a lot of salt during the first 12 hours). I then rinse the cod and soak it in water for another two days, to tone down the saltiness of the fish. During testing, I experimented with shorter curing and soaking times, hoping that I could find a way to cut down on the total time for this process, but a shorter cure produced cod that was still too delicate to be called baccalà, and a shorter soaking time just produced overly salty fish. However, the four-day process is well worth it: When I ran side by side tests of baccalà alla napoletana made with my cured cod going up against the store-bought stuff, the homemade cod blew the regular baccalà out of the water (or tomato sauce).

A serving platter of baccalà alla napoletana
Vicky Wasik

The thick fillets are firm, with just the right amount of chew on the surface that gives way to a silky interior. With the texture right where I wanted it, I was able to do away with the flouring and pan-frying step that's traditionally used to give the baccalà a light crust and move right on to nestling the cured fillets into the puttanesca-like sauce, finishing them in the oven until just cooked through. This is a one-pan recipe that’s also a perfect centerpiece for a festive meal.

For the Salt Cod (Four Days Before Serving): Pat cod dry with paper towels. In a tall-sided nonreactive container large enough to hold the cod fillets in a single layer, spread an even 1/2-inch layer of salt. Place cod fillets on top and cover them completely with salt, using your hands to pat salt around sides of cod to make sure it's completely covered. Cover and refrigerate for 48 hours, checking occasionally to discard any accumulated liquid in the container and adding extra salt as needed to keep cod completely covered.

Making homemade salt cod by packing cod fillets in kosher salt
Vicky Wasik

Once cod has cured for 48 hours, remove from salt and rinse fillets under cold water; discard salt and rinse out container. Return cod to container and cover with cold water. Cover and refrigerate for at least 36 hours and up to 48 hours, changing the water several times during that period (at least once every 12 hours). Drain salt cod and pat dry with paper towels. Using a sharp knife, cut fillets crosswise into six equal portions. Set aside.

Rinsing and soaking homemade salt cod.
Vicky Wasik

For the Sauce and Finishing: Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). In a 12-inch skillet or sauté pan, combine olive oil and garlic, and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until garlic just begins to turn pale golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Add red pepper flakes and cook until aromatic, about 30 seconds. Add tomatoes, olives, capers, and oregano. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thickened slightly, about 10 minutes.

Cooking tomato sauce for baccalà alla napoletana.
Vicky Wasik

Add cod to skillet, nestling portions into the tomato sauce. Transfer skillet to the oven and cook until thickest parts of fillets register 130° to 135°F (54.5° to 57°C) on an instant-read thermometer, 8 to 10 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley, and serve.

Overhead of a skillet of baccalà alla napoletana.
Vicky Wasik

Notes

While we prefer the more delicate texture and salinity of homemade thick-cut salt cod fillets for this recipe, it can also be made with store-bought salt cod. Use 1 pound (455g) salt cod fillets, ideally thick, center-cut pieces. Rinse the cod and soak in water in a large container, changing the water every 12 hours, for 4 days. Cut cod into equal portions and proceed with step 3 of the recipe.

Make-Ahead and Storage

The salt cod needs to be started four days before you plan to serve the dish. The finished dish is best enjoyed right away, but leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Reheat gently before serving.

Filetti di Baccalà (Roman-Style Fried Salt Cod Fillets)

Crisp, battered fried salt cod is a classic Roman snack.

A closeup of a serving platter of fried salt cod fillets.
Vicky Wasik

Nobody has ever accused Roman cuisine of being too light. With its famous permutations of pasta, guanciale, and cheese, and the vast catalogue of hearty quinto quarto—offal—dishes, there’s very little chance that you’ll leave a meal in the eternal city feeling peckish. But that doesn’t mean that there’s any slacking in the snacking department either. Bakeries help tide people over until lunch time with pizza bianca and pizza rossa, while pastry shops and coffee bars peddle rich pastries like maritozzi, brioche buns filled with lightly sweetened whipped cream. In the afternoon and evening, pastry shops cede control of the city’s sweet tooths to gelaterie, and bakeries hand over the savory snack reins to pizza al taglio shops, the Roman equivalent of slice shops, until dinner time, when the sit-down, wood-fired pizzerie open.

Along with pizza, both types of pizza establishments usually serve fritti, a category of fried snacks that includes supplì al telefono, Rome’s answer to Sicilian arancine; potato croquettes; fiori di zucca, battered, squash blossoms stuffed with anchovy and mozzarella; and filetti di baccalà, or fried salt cod fillets. While none of these breaded, battered and deep-fried morsels are light, per se, for the most part they're very shareable and easily transportable,drinking snacks that work particularly well as pre-pizza amuse-bouche. Filetti di baccalà are the exception; even by Roman standards, they are substantial.

The easiest way to describe filetti di baccalà is “extra salty British-style battered fried fish.” Salt cod fillets are soaked in water for days to rehydrate and soften the flesh, while also tempering its salinity. The pieces of fish are coated in a light batter made with flour and sparkling water (no beer here, but sometimes an egg makes its way into the mix) and fried until crisp and golden. The pre-fry soaking period leaves the baccalà well-seasoned, with a flaky but distinctively firm texture that stands up nicely to the crunch of the batter. A squeeze of fresh lemon juice is all that’s needed to season the fish.

Overhead of a serving platter of fried salt cod fillets
Vicky Wasik

The comparison of Roman fried baccalà to British fish and chips may seem like a bit of a stretch, but both dishes were likely brought over by Sephardic Jews who migrated from the Iberian peninsula. The Norman conquest of Southern Italy at the turn of the second millennium CE had introduced the region to dried cod, known as stoccafisso in Italian, or stockfish. But it wasn’t until the end of the 15th century that salted dried cod began to appear on the Italian peninsula, which is also the period when Sephardic Jews were expelled from Spain and Portugal, the salt cod epicenters of the world.

Nowadays in Rome, filetti di baccalà are mostly served as an appetizer at sit-down pizzerias that are equipped with deep fryers to handle the fish-frying, and their wood-burning ovens cranking out pizzas help to mask the smell of the fish-frying. Pizza al taglio shops generally don’t make battered fritti like squash blossoms or salt cod, because they have a very short shelf life, while breaded supplì and croquettes can sit for a bit under a heat lamp without losing their crunch. I love a good piece of fried fish, but I generally prefer to pregame a pizza with a half-dozen olive ascolane, meat-stuffed deep-fried olives. When I want a filetto di baccalà, I head over to Dar Filettaro a Santa Barbara, a stone’s throw away from the historic Jewish ghetto. If we stick with the fish-and-chips comparison, it's like a Roman chippy: It serves fried salt cod, and that’s about it. You can get a puntarelle salad with anchovies, when puntarelle are in season, and cold mediocre wine on tap. It’s the perfect pre-dinner meal.

Lifting a fried fillet out of a pot of oil with a spider skimmer
Vicky Wasik

Making filetti di baccalà at home is quite simple, but here in the US it requires some advance planning because of the required soaking. (In Rome, salt cod vendors often have tubs of baccalà already soaking so that customers can cook with it as soon as they bring it home.) You need salt cod fillets, but actual fillets, not little belly and tail-end scraps that a lot of places try to package up in cute little wooden boxes. Those pieces are great for making brandade, but they won’t work here. Soak the salt cod—after several rounds of testing, I settled on a three-day soak, which is enough time to temper the saltiness of the fish without turning it to mush—changing out the water frequently, ideally at least twice a day. After soaking, all that’s left to do is portion it into long strips, batter the strips, and fry them.

For the batter, I employ some of our standard Serious Eats tricks of the trade. Cutting all-purpose flour with cornstarch, using vodka, and taking care not to overmix the batter all help to limit gluten development. Sparkling water and baking powder help aerate the batter, producing tiny bubbles for a light crust. Serve these light and crispy filetti di baccalà as a pre-dinner snack along with some wine, maybe before cooking up a pizza or two, or as the opening salvo in a seafood feast.

Three Days Before Frying, for the Salt Cod: Rinse salt cod under cold running water until any salt on its surface is washed away. Transfer to a large container and cover with fresh water. Refrigerate for 72 hours, changing the water several times during that period, ideally at least twice a day. (Longer soaking will temper the saltiness of the fish, but keep in mind that salt cod will and should always be somewhat salty.)

Soaking salt cod in water
Vicky Wasik

Drain salt cod, rinse under cold water, and pat dry with paper towels. Using a sharp knife, portion fillets into pieces that are 6 inches long, and 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide (it’s fine if pieces are slightly smaller or larger).

Portioning salt cod fillets into strips
Vicky Wasik

When Ready to Cook, for Frying: Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 200°F (95°C). Set a wire rack inside a rimmed baking sheet and line with paper towels. In a large Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat to 375°F (190°C).

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, and baking powder until well-combined. Add sparkling water and vodka and, using chopsticks, stir until a batter just forms. Don’t over-mix; a few lumps of flour are fine.

Mixing batter for fried salt cod fillets
Vicky Wasik

Add half of the salt cod to batter. If you have a mixture of thick fillets and thin tail pieces, keep them separate and batter the thick fillets first. Submerge pieces to evenly coat them in batter. Working with one piece at a time, lift cod from batter, allowing any excess batter to drip back into the bowl, and carefully add to hot oil, lowering it gently from as close to the oil’s surface as possible to minimize splashing; repeat with remaining battered pieces of cod. Fry cod, turning occasionally, until batter is golden brown and crisp on all sides, 5 to 6 minutes for thin tail pieces, 7 to 8 minutes for thick fillets. Using a spider skimmer or slotted spoon, transfer cod to prepared wire rack, season very lightly with salt, and transfer to oven to keep warm.

Frying salt cod fillets
Vicky Wasik

Skim any browned bits of batter from oil and discard. Return oil to 375°F (190°C), and repeat steps 5 and 6 with remaining cod. Transfer to a serving platter lined with parchment or butcher paper and serve immediately with lemon wedges.

A serving platter of fried salt cod fillets
Vicky Wasik

Special Equipment

Rimmed baking sheet and wire rack; spider skimmer or slotted spoon; Dutch oven; instant-read thermometer.

Make-Ahead and Storage

The salt cod needs to be soaked three days in advance. The fried fillets are best enjoyed immediately.