By now it’s fairly apparent I love my Italian dishes. Pasta is a personal favorite, yes, but sometimes, just sometimes, I need another starch to compliment my meal. When I do, garlic mashed potatoes are a favorite substitute.
More often than not, I leave my skins on when I mash my potatoes. I like the extra nutrition, color, and texture the skins give the dish. Or, I’m just lazy. However, it is not critical to the dish to have them fully clothed, so strip your potato bare if that is how you and your family like them best. The amount of garlic is also up to you. If you love garlic, add more. If you like just a hint of garlic, use less. Same goes for the milk, if you want your potatoes creamier, use more milk. I wanted a more rustic feel to them, heartier, so I used less milk than I would if I was making mashed potatoes and gravy. With these potatoes being heartier, the sauce from any accompanying entrée, would thin them out as dinner progressed anyway, so I wanted to start with a sturdier potato.Now my two favorite foods in life are pancakes (which I still need to make) and meatballs. Someday I might find a way to bring them together on one plate, but until then, I will just make them for breakfast and dinner respectively. Laurie, a fellow blogger over at Food is Love Recipes, made her family, go-to, meatball recipe. Her meatball dish would pair perfectly with my garlic mashed potatoes. Click to get her delicious recipe: Laurie’s Easy Homemade Meatballs
More often than not, I leave my skins on when I mash my potatoes. I like the extra nutrition, color, and texture the skins give the dish. Or, I’m just lazy. However, it is not critical to the dish to have them fully clothed, so strip your potato bare if that is how you and your family like them best. The amount of garlic is also up to you. If you love garlic, add more. If you like just a hint of garlic, use less. Same goes for the milk, if you want your potatoes creamier, use more milk. I wanted a more rustic feel to them, heartier, so I used less milk than I would if I was making mashed potatoes and gravy. With these potatoes being heartier, the sauce from any accompanying entrée, would thin them out as dinner progressed anyway, so I wanted to start with a sturdier potato.Now my two favorite foods in life are pancakes (which I still need to make) and meatballs. Someday I might find a way to bring them together on one plate, but until then, I will just make them for breakfast and dinner respectively. Laurie, a fellow blogger over at Food is Love Recipes, made her family, go-to, meatball recipe. Her meatball dish would pair perfectly with my garlic mashed potatoes. Click to get her delicious recipe: Laurie’s Easy Homemade Meatballs
Ingredients
- 6 medium-sized russets; cleaned and cubed
- 4-8 cloves garlic; grated/finely minced
- 4 tbsp butter
- ¼-½ cup of milk
- ¼ cup Romano cheese (parmesan works too)
- Salt/Pepper; to taste
Instructions
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Bring a large pot of water to boil.
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When boiling, add a generous amount of salt to the water, add the potatoes.
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Cook potatoes until fork tender.
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Do not overcook them.
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Drain them and return them to the hot pot or another bowl.
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Add butter, some salt and pepper, and 4 of the garlic cloves and begin to mash them with either an electric mixer or hand-masher.
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Add some milk, a bit at a time, resume mashing.
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Taste for garlic, salt and pepper.
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If needed add more garlic, salt, pepper, and milk.
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Add the cheese. Mix well.
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Serve with your favorite entrée.
2 Comments
Laurie
May 30, 2014 at 6:04 pmMichelle! excellent post! Sometimes we blogger are remiss in thinking everyone knows how to make side dishes and rarely include the recipes for them. Brava!!! Thanks for mentioning and including my Meatballs! The Mash wee a Great compliment!
Healing Tomato
May 30, 2014 at 6:39 pmThis is a great post. Love the pics and the use of links. You have a great recipe here and I really want to make it right now. 🙂