Fifty pounds of potatoes

Apparently, sometime last summer, I nonchalantly agreed to take part in a neighborhood potato purchase this month. After an early morning trip to the farmers’ market, my tomato neighbor showed up with 150 pounds of potatoes, fifty each for himself, us, and another neighbor.

So now, after a bit of potato-sharing mayhem out on Vicki’s front porch, I have fifty pounds of potatoes. It’s a mix of fat German Butterballs, little Yukon Golds, and dainty Princessse La Ratte fingerlings. We paid a great price buying in bulk (especially for organic potatoes), but any way you slice it, we got fifty pounds of potatoes to eat. That’s a lot.

Consider yourself warned.

Potato, Sausage, and Rosemary Quiche (PDF)
Recipe 314 of 365

If you slice potatoes very thin and arrange them in overlapping concentric circles on the bottom of a pie plate, they make a most interesting substitute for pie crust.

TIME: 30 minutes prep
MAKES: 6 to 8 servings

5 large eggs
4 large egg whites
1/4 cup whole milk
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 pound pork or turkey breakfast sausage (2 patties, or 2 medium links, casings removed)
1/2 large onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
2 German Butterball or Yukon Gold potatoes, about the size of a woman’s fist, scrubbed
Spray olive oil
1 1/2 cups (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, egg whites, and milk together until blended. Season with salt and pepper, and set aside.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage, breaking it up as you add it to the pan, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer sausage to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside. Add the onion and the rosemary, season with salt and pepper, and cook for 15 minutes on medium-low heat, until the onion is soft and has picked up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat and set aside.

Meanwhile, cut about 1/4 of each potato off from one end, chop the two ends into small cubes, and set aside for the quiche. Using a mandoline slicer, slice what’s left of the potatoes into extremely thin, pliable slices.

Spray a 9” Pyrex (or similar) pie plate with the olive oil spray. Layer the thin-sliced potatoes into the bottom of the pan in a spiral pattern, starting with the outside and moving into the center.

Scatter half the cheese across the bottom of the quiche. Add the reserved sausage, onions, and potato pieces, then the remaining cheese. Whisk the egg mixture again and pour it over the filling, tapping the pan and wiggling the ingredients around a little to make sure the egg gets all the way to the bottom of the pan.

Bake in the middle of the oven until puffed and golden, about 45 minutes. Serve warm.