Roast Purple Fingerling Potatoes with King Oyster Mushrooms

The other day at the Greenmarket I came across some beautiful purple Peruvian fingerling potatoes.  These things were the craziest, most gorgeous purple inside and out.  So I bought a pound.  And then I brought them home and realized I didn't know what to do with my little potatoes.  We don't eat a ton of potatoes in our apartment because I am just not that into them.  Alex, being the good little Polish-Irish boy that he is, loves potatoes.  I'm fairly indifferent.  But when we were on vacation with my family, my mother made us Jalapeno-Roasted Potatoes for dinner one night and they were actually pretty good.  So when I saw the pretty purple potatoes at the Greenmarket I decided that I should give fingerling potatoes another try. 

I have to admit that I still just don't get the roast potato - fingerling or otherwise.  Potatoes (without a ton of salt and other seasonings) are just so heavy and bland.  We tossed these potatoes in shallots, garlic, rosemary, evoo and s&p.  And then we roasted them to get them nice and crispy.  I accidentally set the temperature on the oven to 475 instead of 450 so we roasted the potatoes a little too long and they were a little dry.  They were dry enough that we topped them with some fresh ricotta cheese from Eataly to give the dish some moisture.  I had originally planned to top the potatoes with some poached or fried eggs (kind of like a hash), so that the egg yolk could ooze down over the potatoes and form a sort of sauce.  But in the end I decided against the eggs - mostly because I got lazy.  And in the end I think the eggs would just have made the dish feel heavier.  If we had cooked the potatoes correctly it would have been a much better dish.  However, I still think it would have been a bit bland.  I think that if you roasted the potato mixture alongside a whole chicken the drippings from the chicken would give the potatoes and mushrooms some much needed moisture and flavor.  Without what Alex and I like to call the "chicken juju" the potatoes were just missing something.  But they remained a very pretty purple color, so at least they were nice to look at?

Recipe (and a picture of the potatoes right after we cleaned them and halved them) after the jump!

Roast Purple Fingerling Potatoes with King Oyster Mushrooms

INGREDIENTS:
5 tbsp evoo, divided
1 lb purple Peruvian fingerling potatoes, unpeeled, halved lengthwise

s&p

4 oz king oyster mushrooms, cut lengthwise into roughly 1/4-inch thick strips (or regular oyster mushrooms, sliced into bite-size pieces)
1 spring rosemary, cut in half
1 shallot, minced
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tsp chopped fresh Italian parsley
fresh ricotta cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 450°F. Place potatoes on rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with 2 tbsp evoo, s&p and toss to coat. Spread potatoes in single layer. Roast 10 minutes. Toss mushrooms in 2 tbsp evoo. Add mushrooms and rosemary to cookie sheet and sprinkle mixture with shallots, garlic and s&p.  Stir to combine. Roast until potatoes are tender and golden brown, and mushrooms are golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 10-15 minutes longer.

Add parsley to potato-mushroom mixture and toss. Season to taste with salt and pepper and drizzle with remaining tbsp evoo. Serve topped with fresh ricotta, if desired.