Potatoes with dipping sauce a fine appetizer or side dish

There must be at least a million recipes for potatoes. They can be fried, baked, mashed or roasted. They are good with a dash of salt and pepper, or you can get fancy with additional herbs and spices. They can even be the basis of a meal if you top them with something high in protein, like chili or cheese. Potatoes may be the most versatile food in the world.

Chunks of potatoes are sometimes served as tapas, small plates of food that can serve as an appetizer or a snack with drinks. Today’s recipe is designed to be served like this, although it certainly works as a side dish as well.

Potatoes sometimes get a bad rap because of their high carbohydrate content, and also because of how we eat them. Americans eat about 112 pounds of potatoes per person per year. This is a little over 5 ounces of potatoes per day. About 45 percent of the potatoes we eat are from frozen, most in the form of french fries, while a little over 30 percent are fresh potatoes. About 13 percent of potatoes eaten in the U.S. are in the form of potato chips.

Because we usually eat potatoes cooked from their frozen state, as in commercially prepared french fries, tater tots and hash browns, and many of them are processed with additives or extra oils, we might think of this humble vegetable as unhealthful. This is far from the truth. Potatoes are a good source of vitamin C, potassium and copper, and also include many of the B vitamins. Unprocessed potatoes are a decent source of fiber as well. It’s when we process them, fry them, or load them up with sour cream, cheese, bacon bits and butter that we get slammed with too many calories and too much fat.

Today’s recipe can’t be classified as low fat, but it uses more healthful olive oil rather than processed vegetable oil in its preparation. You will spend a bit of time chopping and measuring, but it’s worth it in the end, I promise. I had never put fennel together with paprika, garlic and rosemary to season anything, but I found I liked the combination very much.

The Bravas sauce is like a tomato sauce with a kick. Not just a spicy kick, though there is a little of that, but a kick of sophistication, perhaps from the addition of vinegar and thyme into the standard chopped tomato base. The recipe suggests using a stick, or immersion blender, to blend the sauce together. My inexpensive one wasn’t up to the task. I used my regular blender instead, and it worked perfectly.

You can pour some sauce onto the potatoes and toss them to serve, or serve the potatoes separately, with the sauce on the side. I found I liked this method better. The potatoes were so good by themselves that I ate some of them without the sauce. However, I liked the option of having the sauce for dipping.

You will likely have some sauce left over, but it is quite versatile. I had some leftover steamed broccoli one night, and it was great dipped into this sauce. I think you could put it on chicken, or even toss it with some pasta, topped with a bit of Parmesan.

Try this recipe as a new take on a potato side dish, or serve it alone, as a prelude to a meal, perhaps with a glass of wine or a cocktail.