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¼ teaspoon minced garlic

A handful or two of very finely minced fresh parsley, basil, cilantro, and/or mint

Up to 1 tablespoon very finely minced scallion greens, chives, or dill

Raisins or dried currants or cranberries

Chopped toasted walnuts, pine nuts, or pistachios

A drizzle of toasted nut or seed oil

Chopped ripe tomatoes

baked potatoes

Makes 4 servings

A baked potato is the mother ship of the entire comfort food fleet. You are blissfully reminded of that when you cut into one and add your favorite touches of butter or sour cream, and you know it will always taste and feel a certain way. You’re eating dependability itself, and it’s peace-of-mind-inducing as well as soothingly filling. So here’s a dependable way to make one.

The best way to serve baked potatoes is to bring them to the table whole and uncut—to let each person cut his or her own and season, fill, or top it right at the table. This last-minute routine will help keep the potatoes maximally hot, which is very important. They’re just not the same once they’ve cooled down. (And once they are baked, don’t worry about their becoming overdone—either through waiting in the turned-off oven for you to eat them or by being reheated in a microwave a few days later. They’re sturdy things and can withstand multiple heatings.)

This recipe can be vegan, depending on the topping.

4 medium-large russet potatoes (about ¾ pound each)

1. Adjust the oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 400°F. Scrub the potatoes under running water and pat them dry with paper towels or a clean dish towel.

2. Place the potatoes directly on the rack in the center of the oven. Let them bake for 50 minutes to an hour, or until the outsides become crisp and the insides are tender enough to be pierced easily with a sharp knife. (Better to overcook them than to have them be underdone.)

3. Remove them from the oven and serve right away. (Or, if the rest of your dinner isn’t quite ready, you can wrap them in foil and keep them in the turned-off oven until dinnertime. They’ll hold well this way for about 45 minutes.)

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GET CREATIVE

Season with salt and pepper to taste. (Fancy “designer” salts and exotic pepper are great here, too.)

Top with a pat or dollop of room-temperature butter, sour cream, or plain yogurt.

Sprinkle snipped chives or minced scallion greens on top.

To serve a baked potato restaurant-style, cut an X in the top with a paring knife. Holding the potato with a dish towel or an oven mitt if it’s too hot to handle, gently squeeze the sides and ends, forcing some of the inside of the potato to pop out. Garnish with butter or sour cream and chives.

Drizzle with high-quality olive oil.

Top each potato with a dollop of Roasted Garlic Paste (Chapter 1: Soups), for mashing in.

Cook some bacon (see Chapter 8: Party Snacks) and crumble it on top.

Sprinkle grated Cheddar or jack cheese, or crumbled bleu cheese, goat cheese, or feta, on top.

Serve hot sauce and/or red pepper flakes on the side.

Top with your favorite salsa.

To turn a baked potato into a mini-meal, top it with cottage cheese, leftover cooked vegetables, or freshly cooked eggs. Or serve it with soup and a tossed green salad. You can also expand this recipe into Baked Stuffed Potatoes (Chapter 4: Vegetarian Entrées).

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mashed potatoes

Makes 4 to 5 servings

A very satisfying experience awaits you in this recipe. It’s hard to describe the contentment one can experience from boiling potatoes, mashing them by hand with an old-fashioned, hand-held mashing tool, while adding butter and milk (and possibly even real cream). All that satisfaction, and you haven’t even eaten them yet! You can mash pretty much any kind of potato, but do it by hand. (If puréed in a food processor, potatoes will quickly become gluey, stretchy, and limp, and there’s no fixing them. It’s a mistake you don’t even want to make once.) Russet (baking) potatoes will yield fluffier results than other types (and might warrant a little