After a very stressful day, all I wanted to eat for dinner was a big plate of comfort food. And what mends your soul better than the humble potato? Don’t get me wrong though, whilst this Romanian potatoes with bacon recipe might use humble ingredients, it packs a big punch of flavours. It is indulgent, decadent, and perfect to make you forget about the stress of the day.
The beauty of this Romanian potato recipe is that you can customise it to your liking. You can add as many or as few ingredients. I went all in though, with smoky cured bacon, garlic sauce, smoked paprika, sour cream, and a lot of cheese. In fact, I used two types of cheese to make this recipe.
The Ingredients for the Romanian Potatoes with Bacon Recipe
The main ingredient for this indulgent recipe is the potatoes. Make sure you buy the roasting kind, otherwise you will end up with mashed potatoes instead of beautiful, golden, perfect roasties. Next, you will need the bacon – I used smoked cured pork joint. In Romania, we pride in our cured meats, which have different names, depending on the amount of fat and the part of the pork they come from. Whilst you can use normal bacon, I would highly go to a Romanian shop and try to find either smoked kaiser, sunculita taraneasca (my favourite), or even the smoked cured pork joint which I used for this recipe due to not finding the first two. No matter which one you choose, make sure it has plenty of fat, which will melt in the pan flavouring the onion.
Next, you will also need a red onion, sour cream, garlic, cascaval cheese (you can use another cheese that melts instead), telemea cheese (you can use feta cheese), spring onion, and smoked paprika.
How to Make the Romanian Potatoes with Bacon
The first step in making this delicious Romanian recipe is peeling, cutting in chunky sizes, and then part boiling the potatoes in water with salt. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. When the water starts boiling, time the potatoes for 2 minutes, then drain and place in a tray. Spray with a little bit of oil, then bake for 15-20 minutes.
Heat a little bit of oil in a pan, and add the chopped red onion together with the diced bacon. Fry on low heat, to caramelise the onion and melt the fat of the bacon. This will take 15-20 minutes. Once the onion has caramelised, take the pan off the heat, add the sour cream and the smoked paprika, and mix well.
Whilst the onion caramelises and infuses with those wonderful flavours of the smoked bacon, make a quick garlic sauce. Mince the garlic in a mortar with a pestle (or just crush it with a garlic press if you don’t have a mortar and pestle). Add the oil and mix fast until you obtain a thick, white paste. Then, add water, to loosen up the mixture.
Take the potatoes out of the oven and spread the garlic mixture over them. Then, add the caramelised onion with bacon, sour cream and smoked paprika, and mix gently to incorporate everything. Sprinkle the chopped cascaval cheese on top, and put the tray back in the oven for another 5 minutes, until the cheese melts.
Take the tray out of the oven and plate the dish. Crumble the white cheese on top, sprinkle chopped spring onion and sea salt over, and serve hot. Enjoy!
Tips and Notes:
- Make sure you take the pan off the heat before adding the paprika into the mix. Paprika burns very easily and when it does, it becomes very bitter. You should never dry fry paprika.
- You can replace the cascaval cheese with any other hard cheese that melts at high heat.
- You can also replace the telemea cheese with feta cheese.
Romanian Potatoes With Bacon
Ingredients
- 1 kg potatoes Pipe Maris recommended
- 150 gr smoked bacon Kaiser, Sunculita Taraneasca, or Cured Pork Knuckle
- 100 gr sour cream
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- 100 ml water
- 100 gr Cascaval cheese or Gouda
- 100 gr telemea cheese or Feta
- 3 spring onions
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- sea salt to taste
Instructions
- Peel and cut the potatoes into chunks.
- Put in a pot with cold water and bring to a boil.
- When the water starts to boil, time it for 2 minutes and drain the potatoes.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
- Put the potatoes in a tray, making sure they are not touching each other.
- Drizzle with oil and bake for 15-20 minutes.
- Heat some oil in a pan and put the chopped onion and bacon in it.
- Caramelise the onion over low heat, mixing from time to time to prevent sticking.
- Meanwhile, put the garlic in a mortar and crush it with a pestle.
- Add the oil and mix fast until you obtain a white, creamy paste.
- Add 100ml of water over the garlic mixture, to loosen it up.
- Take the pan with the onion and bacon off the heat, and mix in the sour cream and the smoked paprika.
- Take the potatoes out of the oven and drizzle with the garlic mixture.
- Add the onion and bacon, and mix gently, to cover all the potatoes.
- Add the chopped cascaval cheese, and put the tray back in the oven for 5 more minutes.
- Take the tray out of the oven and plate the potatoes.
- Crumble the white cheese on top, and finish with chopped spring onions and a generous sprinkle of sea salt.
- Enjoy hot!
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Love the recipes can’t wait to try them out, here in Kenya.
Thank you. I’d love to know which ones you will try and how they turned out 🙂