Who doesn’t love mashed potatoes? Fluffy, buttery, creamy, potatoey goodness. They are a great accompaniment to so many meat or poultry dishes. This is my mashed potato recipe. I boil the potatoes with salt and a lot of garlic, and then I blend that garlic into some butter and fold it into the potatoes along with some mascarpone cheese. I’ve gotta admit, these are some fantastic mashed potatoes. Occasionally, I change it up by substituting the mascarpone for Brie, which adds a whole new dimension of depth to the potatoes.
Ingredients
5 medium to large yellow potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 tbsp salt, plus additional
7 cloves of garlic, smashed
½ cup milk
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
4 oz mascarpone cheese
Note: The mascarpone can be substituted with an equal amount of brie cheese if you prefer.
Add the potatoes to a pot and fill the pot with water until just covering the potatoes. Place the pot over medium heat and add 5 of the smashed garlic cloves and the tablespoon of salt. Bring the pot to a simmer and simmer the potatoes until they are soft enough to be easily pierced through by a fork.
Drain the potatoes into a colander. Remove the garlic cloves and place them into a food processor along with the other two unused garlic cloves, two tablespoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of butter. Blend on medium to high speed until a loose paste is formed.
Pour the half cup of milk into a microwave safe container and warm it for one minute in the microwave. Place the drained potatoes back into the pot and mash by hand with a potato masher. Pour in the butter and garlic paste and the warm milk and stir until the potatoes whip up. Stir in the mascarpone until completely blended.
Season with salt to taste as needed. The mashed potatoes are done!