At least that is what Julia Child called it. The other day I watched Julia make 4 potato dishes in the “French Chef”. [The TV program she used to host once upon a time.] Julia used a pie plate to show how to prepare the dish, but I don’t believe she called it a pie. Still it explains why people are calling it her potato and sausage pie. When Julia pulled out the finished product, it was not in a pie plate, she had it in a deep tin fry pan with 2 short handles. I remember my mother used to have one like that. I looked for the recipe on the Internet, but the stuff I found was nothing like the dish Julia made. So I watched the video again and today I made Julia’s Potato and Sausages. It was easy to make and turned out very good. I didn’t have Polish sausage at home so I used a pair of raw Italian sausage links; I slow cooked them in a bit of olive oil first. They were the mild variety, yet they had a bit of spicy kick, so in hindsight Polish sausage would have been better. [Julia made it with Polish sausage.] I used a rectangular casserole, but a deep quiche plate would have worked just as well. Julia wasn’t concerned about how many layers of potatoes or sausages to put in the dish. Plus she kept adding cream for good measure and explained that the eggs and the light cream work in a 2 to 1 ratio; for every two eggs, add 1 cup of light cream. And be sure to use real butter! * Just don’t use baking potatoes.
POTATO AND SAUSAGES
4 medium large red potatoes*, sliced 1 ring of Polish sausage, sliced
1/2 medium onion, diced
1+ 2 Tbsp butter
2 eggs
1 cup half and half
1/4 cup Swiss cheese, grated
salt and pepper to taste
• Peel and slice the potatoes.
• Cook potatoes in salted water until just tender.
• Meanwhile dice half an onion.
• Add onions to a non stick skillet and slowly cook in 1Tbsp butter until very soft.
• Preheat oven to 375F.
• Lightly butter a casserole dish.
• Layer it with potatoes, sausage slices, potatoes. Be sure to sprinkle each potato layer with salt and pepper.
• The sautéed onions come next and end the layering with potatoes.
• Whisk 2 eggs, half and half and pour over the dish.
• Top with the grated Swiss cheese and dot with the remaining butter.
• Bake for 45 minutes covered or until the cheese turns golden brown.
