Ethereal Potatoes

Potatoes with Parsley and Onions

New potatoes, freshly dug and sold at the farmers market, are so sweet and flavourful I hesitate to do anything other than boil them and dress them with a little olive oil and fresh herbs. Any fresh herb will do but one of my favourites harks back to childhood: boiled potatoes with parsley. When I was growing up parsley potatoes were a standard accompaniment to fish. The potatoes were boiled, buttered and sprinkled with dried parsley. I loved these creamy, bland potatoes, so long as they had margarine on them. Now of course I buy my potatoes from a farmer who lives not ten miles away and use fresh parsley cut from my own garden. This weekend I changed things up a bit. To go with grilled whole chicken and skewers of beef kabobs I boiled six white potatoes, quartered, in salted water until just tender. Just tender is an elusive quality. Like all beautiful simple things there is an art to it; the art of restraint. Boil them gently and drain them as soon as a fork can pierce the flesh or they will start to fall apart when you dress them. They should be al dente; your teeth should sink slowly into the dense flesh. Drain the potatoes and place them in a bowl. Then coarsely chop a handful of fresh picked parsley. The idea is to have some contrasting crunch, so don’t discard the stems. Italian parsley has a bold taste. This dish is as much about the parsley as it is about the potatoes. Add a minced clove of fresh garlic and a half cup of coarsely chopped sweet onion. Drizzle with olive oil, a few tablespoons of red wine vinegar and a 3-4 grinds of black pepper and toss. They key here is that everything is fresh and new, dug up that day and assembled quickly. Nothing could be easier or more humble and yet the tastes of summer burst in the mouth with each bite. This is no side dish!