Forget Gravy — Smother Mashed Potatoes In This Rich Italian Sauce Instead

Mashed potatoes and gravy make one of the most recognizable pairings in the food world. But that classic couple is far from being the only delicious duo. Gravy, after all, is just as famous for its dalliances with turkey, biscuits, and poutine. Why shouldn't mashed potatoes spread some love, too? Neutral as they are, mashed potatoes are actually an excellent canvas for all manner of other toppings. And the Italian marsala sauce that you might otherwise automatically associate with chicken is particularly terrific.

Just like mashed potatoes and gravy, it's almost impossible to think of marsala without its bird BFF. But marsala is really just a sauce like any other, made on the stovetop with the titular wine, beef or chicken stock, mushrooms, and aromatics. In other words, a combination that's just smashing for mashing. Unlike some pan sauces, which require a meaty starter, you can even prepare marsala sauce independent of any poultry at all, or make it vegetarian by swapping the stock. And it cooks in around fifteen minutes; the same amount of time it might take to boil those tubers. That undeniable serendipity actually makes it seem like marsala sauce and mashed potatoes might have been the ones who were meant to be all along.

Marsala sauce goes a long way toward making your mashed potatoes seem more like an elevated restaurant plate than the first thing you happened to think of to go with dinner. And you can keep layering flavors into those spuds like you're Guy Fieri let loose in a test kitchen. Roasted garlic is the one-ingredient upgrade for more flavorful mashed potatoes, and that would mingle marvelously with the marsala's own alliums. Silken caramelized onions would have a similar effect. As for the spuds themselves, the secret ingredient to the best mashed potatoes is sour cream.

Bacon is also brilliant with both mashed potatoes and the mushrooms that stud a marsala. A few slices worth of bacon bits crumbled into your starchy base is practically magic when married with the sauce. Other proteins like pancetta might even become more synonymous under the marsala than those cluckers ever were. Even simpler additions like herbs can have a dynamic effect. The rosemary that some marsala sauce recipes require is also great in potatoes, thyme is terrific with fungi, and parsley makes a meet cute out of every dish it kisses. Once you join your mashed potatoes with marsala sauce, you'll come up with all kinds of ways to matchmake the versatile side.