D.C. has been hot and steamy for months now, which means that you have to be either dedicated or crazy to devote yourself to perfecting a roast potato recipe. I am a bit of both, which helps explain why I’ve roasted more than 10 pounds of spuds in the past few weeks.

My quest began when my chief recipe taster and I were visiting my in-laws. We were planning a simple dinner of grilled salmon and asparagus, and I decided to roast some potatoes to round out the meal. Easy, right? It didn’t seem like the type of thing I needed a recipe for; I just tossed the taters with some oil and salt and put them in a hot oven. But that approach only got me so far. Although the potatoes did brown nicely, they were dry and didn’t have much flavor. I wanted more—non-dry potato centers; dark-brown crusts; and flavor that complimented rather than whispered or shouted.

The Internet quickly led me to a method that is apparently common knowledge in England: the key to perfect potatoes is to boil them before roasting. After boiling, many recipes called for you to rough up the potatoes—usually by shaking them in a bowl—to encourage a bit of starchiness that then crisps up nicely with the help of heat and a lot of oil. The boiling method got me closer to my goal, but most recipes I tried used too much oil, weren’t that much crispier, and still didn’t have the flavor I was looking for. Instead, I cut the oil in my recipe and borrowed a flavor-boosting trick from J. Kenji López-Alt: sauté garlic and rosemary in olive oil, then strain them out and use the infused oil to roast the potatoes; once the potatoes are done, toss them with the garlic and rosemary. (This method keeps you from burning the garlic in the oven, which would happen if you were to cook the garlic and potatoes together.)

Pounds of potatoes and weeks later, I finally had a recipe good enough to impress my in-laws,  easy enough for a weeknight, and certainly worth the devotion.

Roasted Potatoes with Garlic and Rosemary

Source: Inspired by J. Kenji López-Alt via Serious Eats

Active time: ~30 minutes; total time: ~60 minutes

Serves 3–4 people

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds potatoes (I’ve used red potatoes and fingerlings with success)
• 2 generous tablespoons olive oil
• 3–4 medium garlic cloves
• Fresh rosemary, enough for 1 generous tablespoon when finely minced
• Salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:

• Finely mince the garlic and the rosemary; set both aside.
• Give the potatoes a good scrubbing. If your potatoes are small, about golf ball size, cut them in half; quarter them if they’re larger.
• Precook the potatoes. You can either put them in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave them for ~7 minutes, stirring once or twice, or boil them in a pot of salted water. Either way, they’re done when you insert a cake tester (or the tip of a sharp knife) into the thickest part of the potato and it meets with little resistance.
• While the potatoes are cooking, preheat your oven to 450°F.
• Heat the olive oil, garlic, and rosemary in a small skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the garlic starts to brown. Don’t let it go too far—in fact, you might want to stop just before you think the garlic is done. Remove the skillet from the heat and immediately strain the garlic and rosemary out of the oil. Set the garlic and rosemary aside.
• Toss the potatoes with the flavored olive oil and a hefty amount of salt (more if you microwaved the potatoes, less if you boiled them in salted water).
• Place the potatoes, cut-side down, on a cookie sheet and put it into the oven. Roast the potatoes for at least 15 minutes without moving them. After that, stir the potatoes occasionally, until they are golden brown.
• Tip the potatoes into a bowl and add the reserved garlic and rosemary. Toss well to combine and serve immediately.