🥔 SIDE
Patata il-Forn (Maltese Baked Potatoes with Fennel Seed)
Thin slices of potato layered with onion, garlic and toasted fennel seeds, moistened with stock, olive oil and a little tomato paste, and baked until soft underneath and crisp and golden on top.
Maltese · easy · serves 6
prep 20 min · cook 80 min
~286 cal · 5g protein · 40g carbs · 12g fat · 5g fiber · 4g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Patata il-forn, or patata fil-forn, means potatoes in the oven, and it is the side dish Maltese families put beside the Sunday roast, roast chicken, pork or lamb, and beside fish. Potatoes matter in Malta: new potatoes are one of the islands' best-known farm exports, and Maltese growers have traded seed potatoes with the Netherlands for more than a century.
The dish is close to a French boulangère. Potatoes are sliced into thin rounds and layered in a baking dish with sliced onion and garlic, and what makes them Maltese is the fennel seed, toasted and scattered between the layers, together with olive oil and a spoonful of kunserva, the thick, sweetish Maltese tomato paste, stirred into the . As the dish bakes, the steams up through the layers so the bottom stays soft, while the top slices dry out, crisp and brown.
Every family has its version: some add parsley or thyme and rosemary, and some finish the dish with olives and capers.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
- 1.2 kg potatoes, peeled and sliced into thin rounds (about 3 mm)
- 2 onions, thinly sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp fennel seeds
- 5 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 300 ml vegetable , hot, many stock cubes contain wheat
- 1 tbsp kunserva or tomato paste
- 1 tsp salt
- to taste black pepper
- 2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Instructions
- 1Heat the oven to 180°C. Toast the fennel seeds in a dry pan for 1 to 2 minutes, until fragrant.
- 2Oil a large baking dish with 1 tbsp of the oil. Spread half the onion and garlic over the bottom, then layer the potato slices on top, scattering the rest of the onion and garlic, the fennel seeds, salt, pepper and half the parsley between the layers. Finish with a neat overlapping layer of potato.
- 3Whisk the kunserva into the hot stock and pour it over the potatoes; it should come about two-thirds of the way up. Drizzle the remaining oil over the top.
- 4Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 30 to 35 minutes more, until the potatoes are soft all the way through and the top is golden and crisp.✎ Chef’s noteIf the top is not browning, turn the oven up to 210°C for the last 10 minutes.
- 5Scatter with the rest of the parsley and serve with roast meat or fish.
Maltese home cooking.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Valletta. The rabbit habit is usually linked to the end of the Knights' hunting restrictions in the late eighteenth century, after which Maltese could take rabbits freely; reading the meal as a gesture of defiance is a theory rather than a documented fact. The rest of the pantry sits between Sicily and North Africa: capers, broad beans, sun-dried tomato.
🗺️
Malta. Maltese food blends Sicilian and North African influences on a rocky Mediterranean island, rabbit stew (fenek), flaky pastizzi, and hearty bread. Local cheeselets, capers, and sun-ripened produce define the plate.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Malta
Timpana (Baked Macaroni Pie)Tubular pasta in a rich meat-and-tomato sauce, bound with egg and cheese and baked inside a pastry case until golden, then cut into slabs.
Stuffat tal-Fenek (Rabbit Stew)Malta’s national dish: slow-braised rabbit in red wine, tomato, and bay, the centerpiece of a village fenkata feast.
PastizziDiamond-shaped flaky pastries filled with ricotta or mushy peas, Malta's favorite savory bite.
Browse all Malta recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Whisk.
Storing it: Keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and reheats covered in the oven. Most bakes can be assembled a day ahead and baked when needed.
Make it a Malta meal
Imbuljuta tal-Qastan (Maltese Chestnut and Cocoa Drink)Drink
ImqaretDessert
Similar dishes from around the world
Lanttulaatikko (Finnish Swede Casserole)Finland
Yorkshire PuddingUnited Kingdom
Gratin DauphinoisFrance
Chipa GuasúParaguay
Sopa ParaguayaParaguay
Krompiruša (Bosnian Potato Pita)Bosnia & Herzegovina
Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Patata il-Forn (Maltese Baked Potatoes with Fennel Seed)?
Thin slices of potato layered with onion, garlic and toasted fennel seeds, moistened with stock, olive oil and a little tomato paste, and baked until soft underneath and crisp and golden on top.
Where does Patata il-Forn (Maltese Baked Potatoes with Fennel Seed) come from?
Patata il-Forn (Maltese Baked Potatoes with Fennel Seed) is a Maltese dish from Valletta, Malta.
Can Patata il-Forn (Maltese Baked Potatoes with Fennel Seed) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Patata il-Forn (Maltese Baked Potatoes with Fennel Seed) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Patata il-Forn (Maltese Baked Potatoes with Fennel Seed) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Patata il-Forn (Maltese Baked Potatoes with Fennel Seed) take to make?
About 100 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 80 minutes cooking), serving 6.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.