Hasselback Herbed Garlic Butter Sweet Potatoes

Thanksgiving week, and the kitchen has become the command center. I have been cooking since Sunday — brining the turkey, making stock from the neck and giblets, baking cornbread for the dressing, soaking dried fruit for the pecan pie. This is Mama's Thanksgiving, reproduced in Charleston with the fidelity of a museum restoration: every dish, every method, every sequence that Carolyn Simmons has followed for forty years in the Beaufort parsonage kitchen.

Robert has been assigned the turkey. His only task is to put it in the oven at the time I specify and remove it at the time I specify and not open the oven door in between. This year I taped a sign to the oven that says "DO NOT OPEN — NAOMI." He found this funny. I was not being funny.

James invited a friend from the bookstore — a boy named Marcus who is also seventeen and whose family is in Florida this Thanksgiving. I said yes without hesitation because my mother taught me that Thanksgiving is for whoever needs a table, and the table expands to fit them. Marcus arrived Wednesday evening, polite and shy, and James brought him to the kitchen to meet me, and I gave him a piece of cornbread because that is how Simmons women greet guests: with food, immediately, before the door has fully closed.

Carrie has taken charge of the desserts — sweet potato pie from Mama's recipe and a pumpkin mousse from a Japanese cooking blog she follows. She measured ingredients with the precision of a scientist and the intensity of a fourteen-year-old who has something to prove, and I stayed out of her way because the kitchen can hold two cooks but only one authority, and today the authority was hers.

I called Mama on Wednesday. She and Joy are having Thanksgiving with Aunt Patricia in North Charleston. The cornbread dressing is the heart of Mama's Thanksgiving — cornbread crumbled and mixed with sauteed onions, celery, sage, chicken stock, and a prayer that is not spoken aloud but is present in every step. I made it tonight because the dressing needs to sit overnight and because the making of it is the most important hour of my year: the hour when I am most completely my mother's daughter.

That hour in the kitchen with Mama’s dressing anchored me, but there were still sweet potatoes to do justice to — and with Carrie having already claimed the sweet potato pie, I wanted something that felt like its own quiet statement. These Hasselback sweet potatoes are what I landed on: humble enough to sit beside cornbread dressing without competing, but dressed up enough for the table we were setting. Here’s how I made them.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 1 hour | Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

6 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 cloves garlic, minced fine
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 teaspoon fresh sage, minced (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 tablespoons olive oil
Flaky sea salt, for finishing
Fresh herb sprigs, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Preheat the oven. Heat oven to 400°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or foil.
Slice the potatoes. Place a sweet potato between two wooden chopsticks or the handles of two wooden spoons laid flat on your cutting board — these act as guides. Make thin cuts crosswise every 1/8 inch along the length of the potato, cutting down until your knife hits the chopsticks. The potato will fan open like an accordion while staying connected at the base. Repeat with all potatoes.
Make the herb butter. In a small bowl, whisk together the melted butter, olive oil, minced garlic, thyme, rosemary, sage, kosher salt, pepper, and smoked paprika until well combined.
First baste. Arrange the sliced potatoes on the prepared baking sheet. Use a pastry brush or a spoon to work about half the herb butter into the slices, gently separating them with your fingers to encourage the butter down between each cut. Roast for 30 minutes.
Second baste. Remove the pan from the oven. The potatoes should be beginning to fan open and soften. Brush generously with the remaining herb butter, again working it into the cuts. Return to the oven for 25 to 30 more minutes, until the edges are crisp and deeply caramelized and the centers are completely tender when pierced with a knife.
Finish and serve. Remove from the oven and let rest 5 minutes. Finish with a pinch of flaky sea salt over each potato and garnish with fresh herb sprigs if desired. Serve directly from the pan or transfer to a platter.

Nutrition (per serving)

Hasselback Herbed Garlic Butter Sweet Potatoes — The Table That Expands to Fit Everyone