Shingled Sweet Potatoes with Maple Syrup and Aleppo Pepper

Sweet potato casserole is a much-loved staple of American Thanksgiving feasts. There, sweet potatoes are usually relegated to a sugary, cloying confection topped with marshmallow goo Not here. At the Ooni HQ kitchen, we’ve reinterpreted them in this spicy-sweet side dish. Warm maple syrup and cinnamon bring sweetness and warmth, while pink peppercorns, Aleppo pepper and harissa spice powder add a fruity pepperiness and earthy, slow-building heat.

For all that flavour, this is an easy Fall side dish. Baked sweet potatoes get cut into ¼-inch slices and layered in a baking dish, then glazed with spice-infused maple syrup that’s been briefly heated on the stovetop to bloom the peppercorns, cinnamon stick and pepper powders. Later, a refire using the Ooni ovens’ powerful direct flames ensures every bite serves up a mix of crispy, caramelised morsels and tender, soft bits.  In a nod to the original casserole (but without additional sweetness),  a sprinkling of toasted pecans and sea salt get added post-bake. Leftovers, should you have any, also just so happen to make for an excellent pizza topping.

They’d make a particularly easy topping swap for our Harissa-Spiced Sweet Potato Thanksgiving Pizza.

This recipe appears in Taking Thanksgiving Classics for a Spin. Find more Thanksgiving recipes here

Shingled Sweet Potatoes with Maple Syrup and Aleppo Pepper

Note

You could also make this dish start to finish in your Ooni oven by baking the sweet potatoes inside. Just wrap them in foil, place them mid-oven and turn them periodically. Conversely, they could be finished under the broiler in your home oven. Either way, this is a great make-ahead dish. You can bake and slice the sweet potatoes up to a day ahead of time, then simply layer, brush with syrup and bake shortly before you’re ready to eat. 

Depending on the size of the sweet potatoes, you might need more or less salt and oil to cover and season them before baking. For reference, the three sweet potatoes we used weighed about 14 ounces (400 grams) in total.

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