Polish potato and sausage bake with cheese: layers in cream, from one dish
A winter dinner that makes itself: thin slices of raw potato layered with fried smoked sausage and onion, covered with cream, milk and nutmeg, baked under foil and finished under cheese. The potatoes cook in the liquid and absorb it, and the cream thickens from their starch. An hour in the oven, under half an hour of work and six portions that are just as good the next day.
Your own work in that: 25 min.
- Slicing and layering 25 min
- Baking 60 min
- Resting 10 min
Step by step
0 / 6 done
Slice the potatoes thinly
Heat the oven to 180 °C and butter the dish. Peel the potatoes and slice 3 mm thick, ideally on a mandoline. Don't rinse them after slicing: the starch on the slices thickens the cream.
Ingredients: 1200 g potatoes · 300 g smoked Polish sausage · 2 pcs onions · 2 cloves garlic · 30 g butter · 150 g hard yellow cheese
TipEven, thin slices are the whole difference. Thick ones won't soften in an hour; uneven ones give hard and mushy layers side by side. A mandoline, or a very sharp knife and patience.
Three millimetres, even, unrinsed
Fry the sausage and onion
Cut the sausage into half-moons, the onion into feathers. Fry the sausage in the butter 4 minutes, until browned, add the onion and fry another 4 minutes, until soft. Add the crushed garlic for the last minute.
Sausage browned, onion soft
Mix the cream
Whisk the cream with the milk, nutmeg, marjoram crushed between your palms, salt and pepper. Measure the salt honestly: potatoes are bland and all the seasoning of the bake is in this liquid.
Ingredients: 250 ml whipping cream (30%) · 250 ml milk · ¼ tsp nutmeg · 1 tsp dried marjoram · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Cream, milk, nutmeg, marjoram, salt
Layer
Lay half the potatoes in the dish like roof tiles, slightly overlapping. Spread the sausage and onion over. Cover with the rest of the potatoes and pour over the cream mixture, pressing the slices down so they are nearly submerged. Brush the top with the butter left in the pan.
Potatoes, sausage, potatoes, cream
Bake covered, then under cheese
Cover the dish with foil and bake 40 minutes: the steam under the foil cooks the potatoes. Remove the foil, sprinkle with cheese and bake another 20 minutes, until the cheese is golden and a knife slides into the potatoes without resistance.
TipCheese from the start would burn before the potatoes soften. Foil first, cheese last: a soft inside, a golden crust.
Foil 40 minutes, cheese 20 minutes
Rest and serve
Leave 10 minutes before cutting: the liquid thickens and the portions hold their shape. Serve with brined pickles or a cabbage salad. Reheated the next day it is just as good.
Ten minutes to set
Before you start
Meat-free, with mushrooms
300 g sliced button mushrooms fried golden with the onion instead of sausage, a teaspoon of smoked paprika in the cream for smoke. The vegetarian version, just as filling.
With bacon and leek
150 g diced bacon and 2 leeks in rings instead of sausage and onion: milder, more French.
Potatoes still hard after an hour
Slices too thick or too little liquid. Slices of 3 mm, liquid nearly to the top; if needed add 100 ml milk and bake 15 minutes longer under foil.
Nutrition
per 100 gStep photos are computer-generated from the recipe.
