Easy Cheesy Potatoes Anna
I adore a good potato side dish, but even I get a little bored of roast potatoes after the first thirty-five or so. Enter: Potatoes Anna! These little stacks of thinly sliced potatoes, slathered in butter, are special enough to impress your guests (but still seriously easy to make).
Of course, I added a little grated parmesan between the layers of my Potatoes Anna (I have a cheese problem), but you can easily make them without the cheese, if you prefer. With some fresh chives and plenty of black pepper, they’re far more tasty than simple sliced potatoes have any right to be – especially considering there are only about 4 main ingredients!
❓ What Are Potatoes Anna?
Potatoes Anna (or Anna Potatoes, if you like to live dangerously) are a French dish consisting of very thinly sliced potatoes which, in the words of Wikipedia, are ‘cooked in a very large amount of melted butter’. If you’re anything like me, that alone will be enough to convince you to make them. They’re unbelievably delicious – a bit like a less creamy (but equally luxurious) version of dauphinois potatoes.
The French name for Potatoes Anna is Pommes Anna, which has always confused me a bit, since ‘pommes‘ means ‘apples’. ‘Pommes de terre‘ (literally ‘apples of the earth’) actually means ‘potatoes’. If any French people would like to explain, please do!
🔪 Do I Need a Mandoline?
To make Potatoes Anna, the potatoes need to be sliced very, very thinly – pretty much as thinly as you can. If you have a mandoline, this is the perfect recipe to use it for, as it will give you perfectly thin, evenly sliced potatoes. Mine is a very simple handheld one a bit like this (Amazon UK* / Amazon US*), and it works wonderfully.
However, you certainly don’t need to rush out and buy a mandoline just for this recipe – mine sits in the drawer and only gets used a few times a year, so unless you regularly make potato gratin or similar, you probably won’t use it particularly often. A large, sharp knife and a bit of time and care will also give you beautifully sliced potatoes.
🥗 Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe – there are only 4 main ingredients! You’ll also need some black pepper from the store cupboard. See the printable recipe card below for detailed ingredient quantities.
- potatoes
- butter – I used salted butter, but you could also use unsalted butter plus a pinch of salt.
- parmesan cheese (make sure you choose a vegetarian version!)
- fresh chives – or another finely chopped herb, like parsley or thyme. Dried herbs would work just fine too!
🥔 What Type of Potato Do I Need?
Potatoes Anna needs a semi-waxy potato, rather than a super fluffy one, so the slices hold their shape and stick together nicely. If in doubt, anything labelled as an ‘all-rounder’ or ‘all purpose’ will work perfectly.
Whatever potatoes you go for, the most important thing is that you don’t rinse the potatoes once you’ve sliced them. The starch that leaks out of the potatoes as you cut them will help to stick the slices of potato together beautifully.
🧀 Why Add Cheese to Potatoes Anna?
Of course, you don’t have to add cheese to your Potatoes Anna if you don’t want to – I’m aware that not everybody is as obsessed with the stuff as I am.
However, even just a small amount of grated parmesan really brings something extra special to this dish. Not only does it help to stick the potatoes together into neat little rounds, it also brings a wonderful savoury saltiness that permeates through every single layer of potato. Since potatoes really love to soak up flavours from around them, I’d recommend giving it a go!
📹 Recipe Video
📋 Step-By-Step Instructions
Here’s how to make these incredible buttery potatoes – see below for the printable recipe with detailed ingredients and instructions.
🔀 Variations on the Recipe
I made these little individual rounds of Potatoes Anna, because they cook quicker, and they make super cute little discs that are easy to serve up in neat little portions.
If you prefer, you can make one huge mega-Anna, with all of the potatoes cooked together in a large cake, which you then slice into triangles to serve. You’ll need a pie dish or large cake tin if that’s what you choose to do, and the potatoes will take a little longer to cook.
💭 Recipe FAQs
If you need to, you can prepare and cook your Potatoes Anna a day in advance, and reheat before serving. You can reheat them in the microwave, or heat them through in the oven to retain their crispiness. Just don’t bake them for longer than they need, or they will become over-crispy.
Potatoes Anna makes a great simple side dish for all sorts of meals – basically any meal that you might otherwise serve with roast potatoes. I’d serve the potatoes with a couple of vegetable side dishes, plus a ‘main’ dish, like a lentil loaf or vegetarian casserole.
🖨️ Printable Recipe
Easy Cheesy Potatoes Anna
If you’ve cooked this recipe, don’t forget to leave a star rating!
Print Pin CommentIngredients
- 680 g (~ 1 1/2 lb) potatoes
- 60 g (~ 2 oz) room temperature butter (I used salted)
- 50 g (~ 1 2/3 oz) vegetarian parmesan-style cheese, finely grated (~ 1/2 cup when grated)
- Small bunch fresh chives, finely chopped
- Black pepper
Instructions
- Thoroughly grease a non-stick baking tray with room temperature butter, and set it aside.
- Wash the potatoes thoroughly and remove any eyes or sprouts. I left the skins on my potatoes, but you can peel them if you prefer.
- Slice the potatoes very thinly. A mandoline is the perfect tool for this (always use the finger guard!) – or, if you don’t have a mandoline, you can use a sharp knife. Avoid rinsing the potato slices because the starch helps them stick together during cooking.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (Gas Mark 4 / 350°F).
- On the greased baking tray, form a circle with overlapping potato slices, measuring about 4 inches across. Dot the potato circle with pinches of butter, and sprinkle with finely grated parmesan, chopped chives, and a small pinch of pepper.
- Repeat these layers (potato, butter, cheese, chives, pepper) on top, two more times, to create a stack of Potatoes Anna.
- Repeat with the remaining ingredients to create a total of 6 stacks.
- Bake in the oven for around 30 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the edges are crispy and browned. Serve with additional fresh chives, if desired.
Video
Nutrition
Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on your exact ingredients. Please calculate your own nutritional values if you require accuracy for health reasons.
Cheese and potato are two of my favourite things, so unsurprisingly I think these look AMAZING!
I loved Gossip Girl, such easy (but slightly trashy) tv to watch. I’ve restarted watching West Wing recently and generally have that on while I work on my blog – I’ve seen all the episodes multiple times so it doesn’t need my full attention anymore!
Ahh see West Wing never grabbed me. Always seemed a bit heavy for me!
i love the new look of your blog, and i’d love these potatoes in my mouth! mmm!
I’d never heard of these. They look excellent!
Oh and love the new banner. That will work so well on business cards!
Thanks!! Thought it was time for a bit of a change :)
Oh yes please!
I love everything potato and like you I would be tempted to add cheese.
I love gossip girl too, but don’t reveal who it is as I have some catching up to do. I saw the series where Blair took over the reigns for a while. Hmmm, now I am thinking maybe I do know.
Shocking memory!
Haha my memory is atrocious. Sometimes I know I’ve seen a film but have absolutely zero memory of what happens or even if I enjoyed it. Bit worrying!
It’s okay, I want to RE-get-into-gossip-girl, because I stopped watching right as it went CRAZY. And I kind of want to see where the crazy went.
These potatoes, also look crazy… crazy delicious!
Ooh does it get crazy? That doesn’t sound good :( I’m only on series 2 (near the end of it I think), can you remember when it gets crazy?
I don’t really entirely remember HOW it got crazy, I just found myself going “ugh, are you serious right now?” too many times, so I stopped watching. It was season 4 or so, I believe. I was also a rabid fan of the books and read to the end of the original series, so maybe I was biased that they went SO off course (Blair and Chuck? NEVER)… but I do remember a weird dramatic subplot with Serena about season 4 or 5 turned me off for good. I miss it sometimes though, so I often think of picking up where I left off…
Ha aw that’s a shame. I guess I’ll have to push through :P I did the same with Lost – every now and then there was a series that was RUBBISH but if you pushed through it generally got better again!