Hasselback Sweet Potatoes with Brown Butter and Sage
Thin, un-cut-through slices fan open in the oven and catch nutty brown butter in every gap.
- Serves
- 4
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 55 min
- Written
Method
-
Heat the oven to 400°F.
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Set a sweet potato between two chopsticks or wooden spoon handles and slice crosswise into thin, coin-width rounds, stopping before the knife hits the handles so the bottom stays intact. Repeat with the rest.
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Rub the potatoes all over with the olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and arrange them cut side up in a baking dish.
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Roast until the slices begin to fan open on their own, about 25 minutes.
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Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, swirling often, until it turns amber and smells nutty, then add the sage leaves and let them crisp for 30 seconds.
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Spoon half the brown butter and sage over the potatoes, working it down between the slices.
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Return to the oven and roast, basting once more with the remaining butter, until a knife passes through the base with no resistance and the edges are deeply browned, another 25 to 30 minutes.
-
Drizzle with maple syrup, scatter over the pecans and crisped sage, and serve hot from the dish.
Notes
The chopstick trick is what keeps this from turning into sweet potato chips — the handles stop the knife before it goes all the way through, so the slices stay attached at the base and fan open under their own weight as they roast. Brown the butter before the potatoes go back in; it takes four or five minutes past melted, and the moment it smells like toasted nuts is the moment to pull it off the heat.
This sits well next to something plain and roasted, like the sheet-pan chicken, since the sweetness is doing the work a sauce usually would. Leftovers reheat fine in a low oven, though the pecans are better added fresh.