Part of the beauty of a baked potato is that it can be flavorful and comforting without being complicated. Emeril Lagasse’s recipe for elevating a basic baked potato embodies this spirit to a T. Indeed, all you have to do at the end of the day is use three ingredients. If you have these, you have everything you need. If you want to go beyond that, you certainly can, but you don’t have to.

And these three ingredients, themselves, are also as simple as can be: they are olive oil, salt, and black pepper. Just remember that since you won’t necessarily have any cheese or bacon to hide your mistakes, you have to get this recipe right from the get-go. That means using good potatoes, like Idahos, good quality extra virgin olive oil, a perfectly sized type of salt, like Maldon’s flaky sea salt, and strictly freshly ground black pepper -– none of that pre-ground stuff that loses its flavor as soon as it hits the shelves. Once you’ve got that notion in your noggin, all you have to do is bake your potatoes on a baking sheet at 425 F for an hour and enjoy.