Ingredients

• 2kg Russet Potatoes (washed, trimmed and cut into quarters diagonally)
• 375g Bacon
• 1 Sprig of Rosemary (finely chopped)
• Pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350ºF.
2. Place your bacon in a single layer on a large wide surface baking sheet.  Place your bacon inside the oven and bake for 30-35mins until the fat has rendered and bacon is crispy.
3. Fill a large pot about 2/3 full with cold water and a large pinch of salt to your water.  Cook under high heat until the water comes to a boil.  Carefully add your potatoes to the boiling salted water and turn down the heat to a medium high.  Cook for approximately 30-40mins or until the potatoes are tender and cooked through.
4. Strain your potatoes through a colander and allow to stand for a few mins to steam and allow the excess moisture to evaporate.
5. Turn up the heat in your oven to 425ºF.
6. Remove your bacon from your sheet pan and roughly chop them.  Set your bacon aside for later.
7. In the same sheet pan, add your parboiled potatoes and coat them in the rendered bacon fat and season with a generous amount of pepper.
8. Place your pan with potatoes into the oven and roast them for 45mins-1hr until golden and crispy all over.
9. When your potatoes are cooked through and golden brown, remove your pan from the oven.  Add your chopped rosemary and bacon to your potatoes and place them back into your oven for 1-2mins.
10. Remove your potatoes from the oven and place onto a serving dish before serving.

Notes:

• When you’re prepping your potatoes, check to see if there are any bruises/scars and trim them off as necessary.  Also make sure your potatoes are well washed and cleaned before parboiling them, otherwise they may taste a slightly muddy.
• This is a cheap and easy side dish to make with a few of a staple ingredients commonly found at home.  
• The secret to cooking the bacon and getting them nice and crispy is to render the fat out properly.  People often make the mistake of cooking the bacon on high heat, and what ends up happening is the exterior is scorched before the fat has had time to render.  So to cook bacon properly, you cook it slowly over a low heat and allow the fat to gradually melt away and for the bacon to crisp and firm up.
• Again similarly with the Roast Potatoes with Chilli, Garlic and Fresh Herbs, you add your rosemary towards the end of cooking so that you retain that fresh rosemary flavour and aroma otherwise if you add the rosemary at the beginning of cooking it’d end up scorching.