After last week’s Thanksgiving dinner, I was left with one Yukon Gold potato, one orange sweet potato and one white sweet potato – orphaned potatoes looking for a home. I thought about making something healthy – simmering them in the remaining turkey stock for an autumn soup (Yawn, Borrrrring!), but soon, I was dreaming about layering them with Gruyere and tons of herbs for a rich, French-style gratin – hmm, delicious and comforting, but more of a side dish than entrée. And then I hit upon the winning gilded-lily combination…
Why not take something as decadent as a potato gratin and encase it in a flaky, melt-in-your-mouth, thyme-scented pastry crust? Oui!
Savory Potato Tart
A rich potato gratin encased in a flaky thyme-scented pastry.
Ingredients
- Tart Shell
- 1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 3-4 Tablespoons heavy cream or milk Tart Filling
- 2-3 potatoes, a mix of white and sweet, sliced very thin
- ⅔ cup grated Gruyere cheese
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage
- 1 large egg
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- ⅛ teaspoon grated nutmeg
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Directions
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt and thyme. Combine canola oil and cream in a measuring cup. Pour oil mixture over flour mixture and mix well*. Place dough between two sheets of waxed paper and roll into a circle large enough to cover the bottom and sides of a 9” tart pan. Transfer to pan and press dough into pan. Chill for 30 minutes while oven preheats to 400 degrees. Cover tart shell with parchment paper and fill with rice, beans, or pie weights. Blind bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove parchment and rice and bake another 10 minutes until tart shell is light golden. Remove from oven.
- Place a layer of potatoes in the bottom of the tart shell, followed by ½ of the cheese and ½ of the rosemary and sage. Follow with another layer of potatoes, cheese and herbs. Finish with a layer of potatoes.
- Whisk together egg, cream, nutmeg, salt and pepper and pour over potato layers. Drizzle with olive oil and bake for an hour until potatoes are tender and golden brown and tart is bubbling. Cover with aluminum foil if top browns too quickly. Serve warm.
* This crust can be a bit crumbly. Don’t be afraid to mix it well to form a bit of structure.
Two-Bit Tart 
That looks amazing. A fitting home for your potatoes (:
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