Baked Garlic Parmesan Potato Wedges

January deep, the week after my birthday. The cold has settled into the sustained kind that February often brings before February arrives — the thermometer barely getting above ten in the afternoons, the nights in the single digits or below. The woodstove is the center of the house in these weeks. I keep it at a steady level that holds the temperature through the night, check it at eleven when I go to bed, check it at four-thirty when I get up. It's a relationship. Thirty-eight years with this particular stove.

Made a proper cassoulet this week — the fourth time now, each one better than the last. The duck confit I'd made in November, the good sausage from Burlington, the white beans soaked overnight. I've arrived at something close to a definitive version: the proportion of beans to meat, the amount of liquid, the length of the final oven time. It took four attempts over two years to find the thing I was looking for. That seems like a reasonable timeline for a dish this complex.

Teddy's cooking lesson this week was scallops. He'd been wanting to try them and I said: they're not hard but they're unforgiving — a few seconds too long and they're wrong. He made them on Sunday evening, his first attempt, and sent a photo. Sear looked right: dark gold on both sides, the center just yielding. He said: I can't believe how fast they cook. I said: yes. That's the lesson. The speed itself is the technique.

Bill from Maine sent a long letter about his winter. He's been making soups — a different soup every week, he said, working his way through a book. He called it the soup curriculum. He is seventy-two years old and doing a soup curriculum. I told him I found that admirable. He said: it keeps the kitchen warm.

The cassoulet takes the center of the table, and it should — it earned it over two years and four attempts. But a dish that serious needs something alongside it that doesn’t compete, something that’s just good and solid and done right. These garlic parmesan potato wedges have become that thing in my kitchen: simple enough that the technique is the whole point, and satisfying in the way that only a few ingredients, treated carefully, can be. Teddy asked for the recipe after I mentioned them. I told him: the oven does most of the work — your job is just not to rush it.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 40 minutes | Total Time: 55 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 medium russet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 8 wedges each
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped, for serving

Instructions

Preheat and prepare. Heat the oven to 400°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or foil and set aside.
Season the wedges. In a large bowl, toss the potato wedges with olive oil, minced garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, and Italian seasoning until evenly coated. Add 1/4 cup of the Parmesan and toss again.
Arrange skin-side down. Place the wedges on the prepared baking sheet in a single layer, skin-side down. This is the step that determines whether you get a crisp exterior — do not overlap them.
Roast the first side. Bake for 25 minutes without disturbing. The cut sides should be deep golden and pulling away from the pan before you move them.
Finish with cheese. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan evenly over the wedges and return to the oven for another 12–15 minutes, until the cheese is set and lightly crisped and the potatoes are cooked through.
Rest briefly and serve. Let the wedges rest on the pan for 3 minutes before transferring. Scatter parsley over the top and serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Baked Garlic Parmesan Potato Wedges — The Side Dish That Earns Its Place at a Winter Table