These Pancetta & Sage Brown Butter Whipped Sweet Potatoes are easy and effortless, yet elegant and loaded with flavor! Roasted sweet potatoes are whipped with crème fraiche and studded with crispy, salty pancetta, earthy sage and drizzled with fragrant brown butter. Light, airy, sweet, savory, and guaranteed to please, these potatoes are the perfect addition to your holiday table!
Bake potatoes: Poke the potatoes several times with a fork and individually wrap each potato with 1 sprig of thyme in a sheet of aluminum foil, folding the foil and crimping the edges to seal tightly. Transfer the pouches of potatoes to a baking sheet and roast for about 1 hour, or until a thin skewer easily inserts into the potato with no resistance. Remove the potatoes from the oven and set aside until cool enough to handle.
Meanwhile, cook the pancetta: In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the pancetta, stirring often, for 5 minutes or until pancetta is almost crisp. Add in the garlic and cook, stirring, for another minute or until garlic is fragrant. Use a slotted spoon to transfer pancetta and bacon to small plate and set aside. Drain the grease from the pan.
Brown the butter: In the same pan you used to cook the pancetta, add the butter. Reduce heat slightly to between medium and medium-low. Melt the butter, swirling the pan gently, until the butter starts to turn pale golden, about 2-3 minutes. Add the sage leaves and fry until crispy, about 30-45 seconds. Use a slotted spoon to remove the sage leaves to a paper towel lined plate. (Reserve 4-6 sage leaves for topping and add roughly crumble the rest.) Remove the butter from the heat* and transfer to the bowl of a large food processor, or the bowl of a stand mixer (with whisk attachment).
Whip potatoes: Peel the sweet potatoes and transfer them to the bowl with the butter. Add in the nutmeg, crème fraiche, ½ teaspoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Pulse or gently whip until incorporated. Add in the half-and-half, a heaping tablespoon at a time, and gently whip until combined. Stir in the crumbled sage, pancetta and garlic (reserve some for topping if desired). Taste and adjust for seasoning with salt and pepper, and consistency with more half-and-half.
Serve: Transfer to a serving bowl and top with crumbled reserved crispy sage and pancetta. Enjoy!
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Notes
The calls for 3 pounds of sweet potatoes, which is roughly 3 large sweet potatoes. But, the weight of 3 pounds is a rough approximation for the recipe! If you are a little light, or a little heavier on the potatoes, it is no big deal!
While the recipe does use pancetta, you can absolutely substitute plain bacon if you would like! Simple proceed with the recipe as instructed, replacing bacon for pancetta in the recipe.
While I do recommend crème fraiche in this recipe, you can use full fat sour cream if you can’t find crème fraiche or simply don’t like it. If making the substitution, please be aware that crème fraiche is thicker, richer and less tangy than sour cream.
The recipe calls for half-and-half, but if you like richer potatoes, you can absolutely use heavy cream. The amount of half-and-half (or heavy cream) you use in the recipe will depend on personal preference and the desired consistency of your potatoes. I used 2 ½ tablespoons in mine.
If you would like to drizzle the top of the whipped sweet potatoes with brown butter you can either reserve 2-3 tablespoons of the brown butter before adding it to the food processor, or you can simply make more brown butter.
The recipe serves 4-6, but can easily be doubled!!