Russet Potato

While the chicken roasts (it only takes about 30 minutes), prepare one of these sauces to dress it up, or simply serve with mashed potatoes and gravy prepared with the pan drippings.

This is definitely a special-occasion meal, but it is so easy to do, and you can “grill” it all year round! I like to use ridged cast-iron grill pans to do everything from hamburgers to tenderloin steaks. I preheat the pan in the oven using the regular bake setting. Once it’s preheated, I set the oven to convection roast or convection broil and use tongs to transfer the meat to the hot grill pan. Turn it over halfway through cooking to get grill marks on both sides. At the same time I bake thick-cut potatoes in a roasting pan on a lower oven rack. Add a simple green salad to the menu and serve with crusty bread.

This thick and creamy soup gains a rich flavor when the potatoes are roasted in a bit of bacon fat.

The convection oven makes easy work of this recipe. While you roast the potatoes, cook the bacon in the convection oven. This leaves your cooktop splatter free.

When summer is in full swing and there are mounds of beautiful purple eggplants available, here’s a wonderfully refreshing salad you can make. Since the eggplant is poached rather than fried, it is a light and healthful dish. The flavors and textures of the eggplant, onion, and potato are harmonious, but you can use fewer or no potatoes and more eggplant.

Peppers play a central role in this Calabrian version of potato salad. Fresh green peppers are fried as a main salad ingredient; and peperoncino, dried crushed red-pepper flakes, serves as an essential seasoning. The peppers you want for this are the slender, long ones with sweet, tender flesh, which I have always just called “Italian frying peppers.” These days, with the greater popularity of peppers and chilis here in America, markets sell a number of varieties that are suitable for frying, such as banana peppers, wax peppers, Hungarian peppers, and Cubanelle peppers. In addition to this delicious salad with potatoes, you’ll find many wonderful uses for fresh peppers, fried Italian-style. Season them with olive oil and slices of garlic, let them marinate, and enjoy them as part of an antipasto or layered in a sandwich. Or sprinkle a little wine vinegar on the peppers (with the olive oil and garlic) for a condiment-like salad that is just perfect with grilled fish or chicken.

Potatoes will never taste the same after you have tried this dish. This preparation captures the beauty of the cooking of Basilicata: straightforward, simple, but full of brilliant flavor. Even if you are not so passionate about hot pepper, I encourage you not to be timid with the peperoncino in this dish. Of course, this kind of simple cooking depends on fine ingredients. Excellent olive oil and good potatoes are key. I like russets, but Yukon Gold or waxy varieties would work, too.

Panino alla Primanti
Just down Smallman Street from our Lidia's restaurant, I have serious sandwich competition in Primanti's, a Pittsburgh institution. I am charmed by their incredibly oversized warm capicola sandwich stuffed with French fries and coleslaw. I am not sure where in the U.S.A. this tradition of stuffing a sandwich with French fries became Italian, but the sandwich was so tall that I could not open my mouth wide enough to get my first bite. Primanti's started as a sandwich pushcart, manned by Joe Primanti, in the Strip in the 1930s, selling sandwiches to truck drivers. One night, a trucker wanted to check if his load of frozen potatoes were good, so Joe Primanti cooked them up. Customers began asking for them, and to expedite the service they were added to the sandwich.

Serve these pillowy rolls along with the ham and set out small bowls of your favorite mustards. Double the recipe for a large crowd—or, if you want to forgo baking your own, brush store-bought rolls with the egg wash, sprinkle with the caraway salt, and warm them in the oven.

To ensure that the grated potatoes bind together in this classic Swiss dish, squeeze as much liquid out of them as you can.

How do you take gnocchi to the next level? Bake them in cream and melty gorgonzola cheese, of course.

Start breakfast by making a potato pancake, then cover it with sausage, eggs, and cheese and bake until puffed and golden.

Celery root, also known as celeriac, has a knobby exterior that is best peeled (carefully!) with a paring knife.

Look for kohlrabi, a mildly sweet purple or green vegetable in the cabbage family, at better supermarkets. For a creamier, smoother purée, pass the boiled ingredients twice through a potato ricer or food mill.

For the softest dough, use a potato ricer or simply mash the potatoes until smooth.

Prepared separately, the filling for these crispy cakes is folded inside for serving. Fry leftovers in a pan the next morning and top with a poached egg for a quick hash.

We've perfected Tanya's English grandmother's version of a succulent mainstay. Leftovers can be reheated in the microwave, and you can even prepare the casserole a day ahead and pop it in the oven for a stress-free weekend dinner with friends.

Our lighter take on the Gilroy Garlic Fries at the San Francisco Giants' AT&T Park forgoes the deep fryer in favor of a hot oven.