We don’t seem to be able to help ourselves. I made another batch of lamb keftedes this past week. This time, I actually made a double batch in the hopes that they’d last a little longer, but somehow I don’t think they did. That would be because Jeremy asked me to make some linguine and marinara sauce so we could have pasta and meatballs from the leftovers.

It was a great idea. I threw together an easy marinara sauce and tossed in some of the leftover meatballs when I dropped the pasta, which was a whole wheat linguine. Everything was tossed together and topped with some Parmesan, and it was like a whole different dish.

Since I seem to keep making the same recipes over and over lately, I’ll throw you a bone and pass on the recipe I frequently use to make baby potatoes when I have small ones of a relatively uniform size. I originally found it at Coconut and Lime, but there is a similar recipe for braised potatoes with fresh bay in All About Braising. If your potatoes are large, or a uniform size, you can fudge this recipe a little and chunk them, but whole is definitely preferable. For the ones I made along with this batch of keftedes, I used some leftover organic beef broth.

Transplendent Potatoes

1 1/2 lbs baby potatoes (about golf-ball sized)
1 1/2 C low-sodium chicken or beef broth
1 T olive oil
1 T butter
1 T rosemary or 2 fresh bay leaves
salt and pepper

Heat the butter and oil over medium high heat in the bottom of a wide nonstick saute pan just large enough to hold the potatoes in a single layer; add the potatoes, rosemary or bay, salt (if needed) and pepper, and broth. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium low and partially cover with a lid. Boil about 20 minutes: The broth should have evaporated some but the potatoes should still be surrounded by broth up to the halfway mark, and just soft enough to pierce with a fork.

Carefully use the back of a spoon to gently crack or flatten each of the potatoes; do not mash. (I’m still working on my technique for this bit.) Raise the heat back to medium high and continue to cook until the broth has evaporated and the potatoes have browned nicely on the underside, about 10 minutes. Flip the potatoes and cook the other side for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and allow to sit about 2-3 minutes before removing the potatoes from the pan and serving.

Source: Slightly adapted from Coconut and Lime.