1 or more large baking potatoes
garlic cloves
olive oil
salt and pepper

Scrub potatoes well. Peel and thinly slice garlic. You’ll need enough slices of garlic to slip between potato wedges.

Place the potato on a cutting board and place a dinner knife or chopstick on each side of the potato to prevent cutting through completely. Potato slices should be about 1/4″ wide.

Insert garlic slices between potato wedges. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Place on foil-lined jelly roll pan or in a baking pan since some oil will seep out. Bake at 350 degrees. A very large potato, as shown here, took about 1 hour and 20 minutes to be fully cooked, yet was moist with a crispy skin. The first time I made a Hasselback, the middle portion of the potato was not quite done enough. When life or inattentive cooking gives you an undercooked Hasselback, make fried potatoes and onions.

With the successful attempt I served sour cream, bacon jam, and watercress pesto as condiment choices.

Considering the amount of praise I got from my stalwart friends who regularly endure my kitchen experiments, this baked potato recipe is stupidly easy to make and pretty dramatic when served.