Squash and Potato Gratin with Bacon (and lots of cheese!).
Sometimes side dishes completely steal the show, and this is one of those times!
Thin slices of potato, butternut squash and onion, piled up with garlicky, creamy-cheese sauce and finished off with even more cheese and crispy bacon. Sooo good!
But is it actually a gratin? Or is it a dauphinoise?
I think it’s actually a dauphinoise – since it’s cooked in cream with a hint of garlic. Although some sources say gratin has a breadcrumb or cheese topping.
Maybe dauphinoise is a type of gratin?
I’m so confused ????
Who cares, it tastes bloomin lovely whatever it’s called!
We enjoyed it as a main dish with a big, crispy-green salad and we ate the lot (after fighting over those bacon bits on top).
Eeek I’ve just realised this is my second-to-last post before C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S!! ????????????????????????
How can that be? I’m so not ready! I mean, I’ve bought all my pressies, decided on the Christmas day menu, ordered the food and decorated the tree……
….but I don’t feel ready!! Are you ready?
My next couple of recipes will be turkey leftover-based recipes, so look out for them. I’ll post one on Saturday, and then I’ll be sure to get the next one out early on boxing day. Both yummy double-tested turkey recipes (I’ve cooked a lot of turkey over this last couple of months!).
If I get time, I might try to post a dessert recipe too. Christmas spiced pecan cheesecake? It would be wrong not to!
Right, time to go back to list-making and Christmas panic.
The Squash and Potato Gratin with Bacon Recipe:
- 300 ml whole (full fat) milk
- 400 ml double (heavy) cream
- 2 cloves garlic peeled and minced
- 600 g floury potatoes (such as Maris Piper potatoes) peeled and sliced thinly
- 1 small onion peeled and thinly sliced
- 6 rashers/slices cooked streaky bacon chopped
- 100 g mature cheddar cheese grated
- 75 g Grana Padano or Parmesan cheese grated
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- 300 g approx 1 medium butternut squash peeled, cut in half and thinly sliced (seeds discarded)
- 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
- Preheat the oven to 190C/375F.
- Heat the milk, cream and garlic in a small pan until it's almost at boiling (don't boil though). Turn off the heat.
- Take an oven-proof dish approx. 20cmx25cm, layer a third of the potatoes and onion on the bottom of the dish, overlapping slightly. Sprinkle on a quarter of the bacon, quarter of the cheese and a pinch each of the salt, pepper and thyme. Pour over quarter of the hot cream.
- Repeat with another layer of everything, this time including half of the butternut squash.
- Repeat with a final layer of the potatoes, onion and butternut squash, but this time, don’t sprinkle on the bacon (it will overcook if sprinkled on top at this point). Pour the remaining cream around the sides of the squash/potatoes (the cream should have filled up the dish and be just about touching the bottom of your top layer of squash). Sprinkle the rest of the cheese, thyme and a pinch of salt and pepper over the top.
- Place in the oven and cook for 1 hour until the potatoes are tender and the top is browned. Sprinkle on the remaining bacon for the last 5 minutes of cooking to heat through.
- Sprinkle on the parsley before serving.
Nutritional Information is per serving.
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Tom says
Anything with bacon is always a winner, looks delicious:)
Julie says
This looks great, always pleased to have a new recipe to use up some of my large stock of butternuts harvested from my garden!! Just to help with your confusion, a gratin is simply a dish of veg cooked in cream in the oven, not normally with cheese or breadcrumbs but can be. Dauphinoise is a dish from the Savoie region of France, a gratin made with potatoes and cream and garlic, sometimes but not authentically with some cheese. So your dish is a gratin!!