I love starchy veggies and potatoes taste SO good in a potato shell. You can be creative with the ingredients in this recipe and make them your own. I used a bit of basil for this recipe, but you could use some garlic (or just about anything else), or even taco seasoning. I've made these with peri peri hot sauce, a little bit of cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, even my homemade coleslaw mix!
Ingredients:
-4 medium potatoes (about 1 pound)
-1 tablespoon olive oil
-2/3 cup ricotta cheese
Method:
Place the oven rack in the middle position. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Scrub the potatoes a few times, prick them all over with a fork, then wrap each potato in aluminum foil. Bake the potatoes in the oven for 45 minutes, turning them over halfway through.
When they're done, uncover them and let the potatoes cool down before peeling off their skins.
Drain them thoroughly and place each in a bowl. Mash with a fork to drain any excess moisture out of each potato piece. Remove any small pieces of flesh left behind by ridding it of skins and also mash it up to make sure its broken down into bite-sized pieces that are still identifiable as potatoes.
Mix in the ricotta cheese, oil and basil; the mixture will be very thick. You should have about 1/3 cup of combined ingredients at this point.
Scoop up a generous amount of the potato mixture and place it in each potato shell. I like them filled to about 1/2 way or 3/4's full so that you can put whatever you want on top, whether it's onions, bacon, cheese, chili sauce or whatever else you want!
Spread them out on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake for 20 minutes until the toppings are sizzling.
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