Is cooking oven roasted red potatoes only as easy as coating with olive oil and Rosemary and then baking in a 350 oven for fifteen to twenty minutes?

Needs some salt.

If they are whole, you need to pierce them in a couple of places. Otherwise, they will explode in the oven. And I say this from experience.

See my recipe for roasted red potato salad in the fall picnic cookbook.

Cut the small red potatoes in half lenghtwise. Coat with olive oil, salt, pepper and whatever herbs you like (I prefer herbs d' provence). and place cut side down in a metal pan. Roast at 450 for a half hour.

ETA; Rocks, this belongs in the cooking and shopping forum.

I like to cut the taters into quarters lengthwise. That way you get more of a crisped, browned edge. Of course, it's twice as much cutting, and some people don't like their edges that way.

You can certainly go nuts. If there's any spice or herb mixture you've wanted to experiment with, roasted red potatoes are probably the most versatile (and easy to prepare!!!) dishes you could find. I.e., if you screw up or decide that your idea for crab juice, lima bean and natto potatoes is disgusting, you're only out a few potatoes.

Try some truffle salt, some old bay or cajun seasoning, roasted garlic, or whatever you can think of.

EDIT: Depending on what you use, you may want to adjust the cooking temp/time. Also, if quartering, pay attention to what the potatoes are doing - you may need to turn them.

Be mindful that at 450 for half hour the other things you add might burn. Think of how your kitcken would smell if the natto burned.

Also, under my method, the browning mainly takes place on the cut side down. If you quarter the potatoes, you might want to give them a couple of flips during cooking toi get them crunchy on the other sides (hard to do with such a hot oven).

Also, I emphasize the use of "small" red potatoes. Costco sells bags of them that are perfect. If you are buying them loose from the grocery store, pick out the smallest ones you can find. If you are stuck with bigger potatoes, I would cook them a little longer and definitely quarter them lengthwise.

My method is similar to Jacques', but I brown them first in olive oil on the stove top, adding kosher salt and flipping, much like you would do traditional sautéed potato balls. Once they're browned lightly in the oil, I shove them in the oven at 375 or so. I add the herbs (usually herbes de Provence or the like) during the last 5 or 10 minutes of cooking to prevent them from burning.

DanCole's seasoning suggestions sound like fun!

I was going to suggest some lavender along with rosemary - but only a little - and salt to taste. Coarser salt is best. I go with a lower temperature and 45 minutes.

While waiting for someone, I was flipping through that new Cook's Illustrated mag (Cook's Country). They had an interesting 'truc' for roasted potatoes: they toss them in a bit of cornstarch (and salt). Absorbing some of the moisture of the potatoes, they said it made the exterior super crisp (in a good french fry kinda way). Someone give this a go and report back (it's too hot for me to be making roasted potatoes in my condo).

Edit: Found the recipe.

That recipe sounds good Chris.
I use rendered duck fat instead of olive oil, and then I add the garlic and course salt the last 15 minutes of cooking. Recipe is adapted from The French Farmhouse Cookbook by Susan Loomis.

That's even better (in fact, the best!).

I agree with the lower oven temp. Even better if you have a convection oven.

cj -- I think I might try that recipe and I will report back...

I generally quarter mine, zap 'em in the microwave for 2 minutes, toss with EVOO and then add my spices. For whatever reason, I was having problems with seriously undercooked potatoes before I started microwaving to pre-cook.

I usually coat with a mix of lemon peel, granulated garlic, citric acid, and pepper.

Harris Teeter often has several varieties of fingerling potatoes available in bulk; these make a great mixed roast potato.

All of the above (but not the microwaving)!

I prefer a metal baking pan to glass, for browning. I also like to toss some smashed garlic cloves in and sometimes some shallots or onions. I tend to season after roasting.

I just did some this evening -- quartered lengthwise, tossed with EVOO, chopped garlic and rosemary, and a generous amount of sea salt. 450 in a convection oven for 20 minutes. Lovely light brown, if not tremendously crisp. Nevertheless, Azami and I declared them awesome.

I find fingerlings have a higher ratio of skin to flesh than is ideal - I like a fluffier center to go with the crisp outside.

Plus, they could end up looking like these on the plate:

Are those the purple fingerlings? When I used those, they looked equally alarming. I considered scattering a few of them on my neighbor's sidewalk.

They are. They tasted fine but looked like shit.

Tried this out last night (minus the garlic powder and parsley butter). The cornstarch worked miracles. This is the sort of snazzy trick I want to know more of. I've never home-cooked potatoes with such a perfect level of cripsness before.

After taking them out I tossed them with some truffle oil, truffle salt, pepper and parmagiano (I didn't have any truffle parmagiano, truffle pepper, truffled water, or waterated truffles). A delicious home-grown, non-deep-fried version of Firefly's frites. Served it along with some perfectly-grilled NY strip with some St. Pete's blue from Cheesetique and a bottle of Monsanto for the perfect steak-and-potatoes dinner.

Curry-type spices are also great for roasted potatoes!

I agree- here's how I use them:
Gently crush a couple of cloves of garlic and a couple rounds of ginger and throw them into a saute pan with a bit of neutral oil. Once the garlic and ginger are infused in the oil, put your spices in the oil to bloom them. Add the quartered (or however you want to cut them) potatoes, and coat them in the mixture off the heat and put the pan a preheated oven as normal. A squeeze of lemon or lime on the finished potatoes is good, too. Not incredibly sophisticated, but I like it.