Potato and Spinach Gratinée

Gratinée sounds fancy, but it really just means a casserole with a crispy top: gratinée comes from the French word gratter, “to scrape”, because you put cheese scrapings on top of the dish before it goes under the broiler.

I make my gratinées with potatoes and whatever tasty veggies I have around (tonight that meant spinach) and top it off with any old cheese (tonight that meant sheep’s milk cheese that I just didn’t like that much).  The combinations are almost limitless.

3 large russet potatoes, sliced into thin rounds
1/2 small head of spinach, thoroughly washed, leaves ripped to bite-sized
6 in sq. of cheese of your choice, grated or ripped into bits
1/3 c. cream
1/4 c. flour
butter
spices: salt, pepper, garlic powder

Slice potatoes into fine rounds.  Soak them in a bowl of cold water while you prepare the spinach.  The cold water helps some of the starch diffuse out of the potatoes.  

Grease the bottom of a 13 x 9 x 2 baking dish with butter.  Preheat the oven to 300. Line the dish with potato rounds.  It may tax your visuospatial skills, but at least try to make an even layer.  It should look like this.

On top of potato layer number 1, sprinkle salt, pepper, garlic powder and a very light dusting of flour.  The flour helps absorb and thicken the liquid that will come out of the veggies during cooking. Top that with some cheese.  Now your dish should look like this:

Now you’ll want to put a layer of spinach.  I forgot to take a picture of that, so just pretend the dish is covered in green leaves.  Cool.  Then, on top of the spinach, put another layer of potatoes, salt, pepper, cheese and flour.  And then, more spinach.  And then more potatoes.  And then this is where it gets crazy:  When you run out of potatoes just leave them plain.  Yeah, you can put some slat and pepper, but no flour.  Go ahead and put the rest of the cheese on top.  Pour cream over the whole casserole.  Cover with tin foil and bake for 45 minutes.  After 45 minutes, check on the potatoes.  Are they cooked? No? put them back in the oven.  Add some cream if things are drying out.  When the potatoes are cooked through uncover and broil the dish for a few minutes until crispy on top.

Now your dish should look like this:

Bon appétit!