Boiled fingerling potatoes tossed with vermouth, red onions, parsley, and an herb vinaigrette.
Why should russets and yukon golds have all the fun? Here’s a quick and easy potato recipe, for a side or salad, depending on if you serve them warm or cold, using fingerling potatoes or new potatoes.
The approach is simple—quickly boil halved fingerling potatoes and douse them in vinaigrette.
But that’s not all. Two simple tricks will elevate this dish to make it company worthy.
First, soak thinly sliced red onions in the vinaigrette while the potatoes are cooking. The vinaigrette will “pickle” the onions, taking away some of their oniony edge.
Fingerling potatoes
Second, sprinkle the potatoes with dry vermouth as soon as they are done cooking, so the potatoes soak up the wonderful flavor of the vermouth. This is an idea I picked up from Cooks Illustrated years ago and it adds great flavor to the potatoes.
You can of course, skip the vermouth if you want. But if you have it, use it!
These potatoes can be served warm, room temp, or cold. Chilled, they are perfect for hot summer days.
Fingerling Potatoes with Herb Vinaigrette Recipe
- Prep time: 15 minutes
- Cook time: 15 minutes
- Yield: Serves 6-8
Ingredients
- 2 pounds fingerling potatoes, or small new potatoes, scrubbed and halved
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh oregano leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup dry vermouth
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Method
1 Cook the potatoes: Place potatoes in a medium pot and cover with cold water by about an inch. Bring to a boil and add a teaspoon of salt to the water. Lower the heat to a simmer and let simmer until the potatoes are fork tender, about 6-8 minutes.
2 Make the vinaigrette: While potatoes are cooking, prepare the herb vinaigrette. In a medium bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, thyme, oregano, mustard, salt, pepper, and olive oil.
3 Add red onions to vinaigrette: Place the sliced red onions in the bowl with the vinaigrette. This will quickly « pickle » the red onion slices.
4 Sprinkle strained potatoes with vermouth: Strain potatoes from the water and place them in a large bowl. Sprinkle on the vermouth and toss to coat. Let the potatoes sit for one minute to soak up the vermouth.
5 Toss with onions, parsley and vinaigrette: Gently toss the potatoes with the onions, parsley, and the herb vinaigrette. Let sit for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Serve slightly warm, room temperature, or chilled.
