Herb-roasted new potatoes of red, white and blue

We recently picked up a bag of red, white and blue new potatoes at the farmers market. I thought it would be fun to roast them to see if we could tell any difference in flavor. We couldn't, but it was interesting how the dish turned out.

We had an unexpected guest for dinner who was visiting from New Mexico. When I placed the dish of potatoes on the table, he was a little hesitant to try the blue ones. They did look rather odd. Once they were cooked, they turned very dark purple and actually looked more like beets than potatoes.

Our guest's comment: "If you close your eyes, you can't even tell they are blue."

New potatoes are the same varieties as large potatoes. They are just harvested earlier so they haven't had a chance to convert their sugar content to starch. Because they are so young, they are slightly more velvet in texture and the skins are thin and delicate.

HERB-ROASTED NEW POTATOES

Servings: 10

Use your favorite combination of fresh herbs to flavor these roasted potatoes.

4 pounds of new potatoes, any color

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut potatoes into quarters or leave them whole if they are very small. In a roasting pan, combine the olive oil, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper and toss evenly to coat the potatoes. Place the pan in the hot oven and roast the potatoes until they are tender on the inside, crisp on the outside and golden brown, about one hour. Serve while hot.

(E-mail Gwen Schoen at gschoen(at)sacbee.com)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)