Petersilienkartoffeln

The everyday side dish of the German table: waxy new potatoes boiled until tender, then turned in melted butter with a great deal of chopped parsley until each one glistens green, the simplest and most comforting partner to a Sunday roast or a piece of fish

Origin: Germany

From the journey of Parsley.

Petersilienkartoffeln, parsley potatoes, are a fixture of the German and Central European table, the plain, comforting side dish that accompanies the Sunday roast, the boiled or fried fish, the Schnitzel, and a hundred other dishes. They could hardly be simpler: small waxy potatoes are boiled until just tender, then rolled in melted butter with a generous handful of chopped fresh parsley until every potato glistens and is flecked with green. The parsley is the whole character of the dish, its colour and its fresh, green flavour against the buttery, earthy potato, and the simplicity is the point. They belong to the same homely tradition as the German love of the parsley root in the soup pot: in the German kitchen, parsley is not an afterthought but a quiet, constant presence, and nowhere more pleasingly than tossed warm with new potatoes and butter.

Ingredients

Potatoes

  • 800 g small waxy potatoes, peeled (or scrubbed new potatoes)

To finish

  • 50 g butter
  • 1 large handful flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped (about 30g)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 pinch grated nutmeg (optional)

Method

  1. Boil the potatoes in salted water until just tender to the point of a knife, about 15 to 18 minutes, then drain well and let the steam dry off for a minute.
  2. Return the dry potatoes to the warm pan (off the heat or over very low heat) and add the butter, letting it melt and coat them.
  3. Add the chopped parsley, salt, and the nutmeg if using, and turn the potatoes gently until every one is glistening and well flecked with green.
  4. Serve at once, hot, as a side dish.

Notes

The dish lives or dies by good potatoes, good butter, and plenty of fresh parsley; there is nowhere to hide. A little lemon zest or a clove of crushed garlic can be added, but the classic is parsley and butter alone. This is also the standard way to serve potatoes alongside the German parsley-root soups, completing the herb's double role on the Central European table.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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