- Prep Time: 35 minutes
- Cook Time: 1.25 hours
- Yield: 4 servings
This is not a typical Gratin de Pommes de Terre that you would find on the Food Network website. If you would like to try a more adventurous recipe, give this a try.
It has the same basics, with added personality. I will double-up this recipe for dinner parties or a Thanksgiving feast.
Traditionalists may insist on making a bouquet garnis for infusing the milk with herbs, but often I don’t bother with one for side dishes like this. Some people actually like the tiny rosemary leaves that may escape into the final product.
Based on the type of protein in the main dish with which the potatoes au gratin will be served, I will or will not include the gorgonzola cheese. Gorgonzola adds a beautifully pungent aroma, creamy texture, and sharpness to the tongue when accompanying beef or other red meats.
You will need three pots: a small saucepan to warm the cream, a medium-large pot to parboil the potatoes, and a frying pan in which to cook the onions, bacon, and garlic.
Ingredients
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, rinsed and dried
- 3 leaves of fresh sage, rinsed and dried
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 large onion, cut in half, then thinly sliced into half-moon slivers
- 4 rashers of lean bacon, fat removed, and coarsely chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, smashed and left whole
- 1 pound, about 3-4 red-skinned potatoes, 1/8 inch sliced, length-wise, skin on
- ¼ cup shredded Gruyere cheese
- ¼ cup shredded Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
- 1/8 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese (optional)
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 º F.
- Grease a 1.5-quart oven-proof casserole; an 8.5″x4.5″x2.5″ oblong is ideal. Rub the inside of the casserole with one of the smashed garlic cloves. Do not discard.
- In a large pot, add the potato slices and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Do not let the potato slices cook through, or they will fall apart when it comes to assembly time. Remove from heat after five minutes and let potato slices continue to rest in the water used for boiling.
- In a small pot, heat the cream over low heat with the rosemary and sage. Let the cream thicken until it coats the back of a wooden spoon. Stir occasionally.
- Meanwhile, in a frying pan, melt the remaining butter over medium heat. Add the onion slices and caramelize without scorching. Stir frequently. When the onions just start to turn brown, add the bacon bits. When the bacon is about half cooked, add both garlic cloves and cook until both onions and bacon are brown and semi-crisp, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Using a slotted spoon, remove potato slices from the pot one at a time and create a layer of potatoes in the casserole bottom, making sure to overlap edges slightly. Sprinkle lightly with salt.
- Remove the cream from heat and discard the herbs, with the exception of one rosemary sprig, to later be cut into four segments for garnish.
- Drizzle about 1/3 of the cream over the potato layer, followed by about 1/3 of the onion/bacon mixture, pushing the onions and bacon into the cream to coat. Top with 1/3 of the shredded cheeses.
- Repeat the layering process until all the components are in place, finishing with a layer of cheese.
- Cover the casserole with aluminum foil, and bake on a medium oven rack for 1 hour. Remove the foil and allow the top layer of cheeses to brown.
- Remove from oven and allow to set for 10 minutes before serving. If the starches from the potatoes are not allowed sufficient time to sit and coagulate, you may end up with a runny mess—just as tasty but with compromised presentation value.
- Once the dish has set up, I like to use a ring mold to make esthetically pleasing, individual, cylindrical towers of potato and filling layers to place on each plate.
- For this application, my favorite was a 2 5/8” diameter, 2 1/8” tall ring mold I found at Kitchen Bazaar in Paris. I searched the city and found my ring molds just down the street from our hotel on Blvd. Poincaré.
- Using a cookie-cutter motion, push the ring mold into the potatoes. To support your tower, place a flipper or spatula beneath the potato-filled mold.
- Transfer to the dinner plate, remove the spatula from under the mold, gently slip off the ring mold, and garnish with the fractional rosemary sprig.
- Serve with meat, poultry, wild game, or fish. These potatoes au gratin are very nice as a side dish to braised short ribs or at a Thanksgiving feast.
