Autumn potato gratin

Well, autumn is officially on, and I had a hankering for one of my favorite fall dishes: Rachael Ray's autumn potato gratin. I am not the biggest Rachael Ray fan, but I saw her make this on her program, and I had to look it up. I first made it a few years ago, and I love it.

I knew I was meant to make this tonight, because I just happened to have almost exactly four pounds of potatoes, as she calls for. I got beautiful new potatoes and purple potatoes from the farmers' market, and one big russet from my CSA. You slice the potatoes into chunks that are about bite size, maybe a little bigger. Put them in a 9 x 13 dish. Look at these gorgeous little potatoes, especially the purple ones.

Meanwhile, heat some cream, butter, garlic cloves, and herbs in a sauce pan. This infuses the herbs and garlic into the cream mixture. I used fresh rosemary, dried thyme, and a little dried tarragon instead of sage. Pour the cream mixture (strained if desired, but I do not desire) over the potatoes and grate some lovely fresh parmigiano reggiano cheese over the top. Bake for 30 min. at 400 degrees.

This has such a warm flavor, and I love how soft the garlic gets. I evidently ate this and put it away before I got to take a picture of the finished version, but the recipe link above contains a picture, if you're really curious. The main photo I wanted to convey, anyway, was the purple potatoes. Awesome.

The cream sauce is really runny the first day, but it gets much better the next day. I'm looking forward to having this for lunch tomorrow!