Potatoes you won't be able to stop eating!

This is one of those dishes that my DH and I dipped our forks into - just for a taste to see how it is - and before we knew it - we had eaten 1/2 the dish. Yikes! Trust me - you won't be able to stop at just 1 bite once you start!


We used 2-3 oz speck, mushrooms, olive oil, garlic clove, italian dry seasoning, 1 lb potatoes, 8 oz (2 balls) mozzarella cheese (sliced), 3 oz Gruyere cheese, 1 pint whipping cream.


Saute karreespeck (this is a smoked and then air dryed - very similar to pancetta if you can't get speck) in olive oil. Remove from pan. Next add a little bit of that red wine you are drinking to the pan to deglaze it a bit and then saute sliced mushrooms (about 4.5-5 oz) in the oil/wine mixture. Add 1/2 chopped garlic clove and about 1 tsp. of Italian dried herb mixture - stir and then stir the speck - then set aside this pan for cooling.

Now - butter a medium casserole dish. Cover the bottom with a layer of thinly sliced potatoes (our other kitchen has a great mandoline, but alas, we suffer the multiple kitchen syndrome, so DH had to cut all those potatoes!). Layer mushrooms, mozzarella and a bit of Gruyere cheese, start again with potatoes and keep layering until everything is gone - ending with the potatoes. Pour whipping cream over the top and put a bit more cheese on top for good measure.

Cover with foil. Bake for 2 hours at 325.

Love it, love it, love it. Now - trying to decide what to serve it with? Double dipped Southern fried chicken? Prime rib? Gosh - if no one is looking - just eat it straight out of the pan! Variations... we are going to try a vegetarian version with chick peas instead of the meat - might add roasted red peppers for flavor to make up for omitting the speck - served with roasted eggplant...