Rösti recipe — traditional dish from Switzerland

Name: Rösti
Prep time: 260 min
Cook time: 520 min
Total time: 780 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Switzerland
Ingredients: 800 g waxy potatoes; 70 g butter; 1 tsp salt; 1 tsp black pepper

A Bernese potato cake built from waxy potatoes boiled in their skins the day before, grated into long strips and never rinsed so the starch binds the crust.

How to make Rösti

Boil 800 g of waxy potatoes in their skins in salted water for 15 to 20 minutes. They must stay slightly underdone in the middle.

Drain, cool and refrigerate them at least 12 hours, ideally overnight. Warm potatoes turn to purée on the grater, so this wait is not optional.

Peel them with a blunt knife and grate them on the coarse holes into strips as long as possible. Never rinse them: the starch on the surface is what holds the rösti together.

Season with 1 teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of black pepper and mix with your hands, lightly, without pressing the strands together.

Melt 70 g of butter in a 24 cm pan until it foams, then scatter the potatoes in loosely and level them without packing them down.

Fry 15 minutes over medium heat until a solid golden crust forms underneath, shaking the pan now and then to check it moves as one piece.

Slide the rösti onto a plate, add 70 g of butter to the pan, flip the cake back in and fry 10 to 15 more minutes. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.

What is Rösti?

Rösti is a traditional dish from Switzerland, cooked in a pan, and takes about 13 hours from start to finish. It is built around waxy potatoes and butter. The recipe below uses 4 ingredients and is written out step by step.

How long does Rösti take?

At 780 minutes it is slower than 84% of the 586 dishes in Copper's atlas. Copper's atlas has 3 dishes built on waxy potatoes. The method runs to 7 steps, the longest being 20 minutes.

Any tips for making Rösti?

Chill the boiled potatoes overnight before grating, never rinse the strips and scatter them in the pan loosely without packing them down.

How Rösti compares

Waxy potatoes appears in only 2 other dishes in the atlas.

Copper documents Switzerland alongside 197 other countries. Every recipe is free to read, with the full ingredient list and every step.