POTATO TOBASI GRATIN
4 pounds red potatoes, sliced thinly in circles
2 cups Cricket Creek Farm Tobasi*, diced
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
½ teaspoon salt (to taste)
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
Scrub and thinly slice the potatoes. Set them aside in a bath of cold water.
Preheat oven to 375° F. Cut the Tobasi into small cubes and set aside.
Combine the milk and butter in a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom. Slowly heat over a mediumlow flame, stirring frequently, until the butter melts. Be careful not to scald the milk by allowing it to boil.
Add the Tobasi cubes to the sauce about ½ cup at a time, stirring frequently, until all the cheese has melted. Add nutmeg, salt and pepper. Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed. If the cheese sauce seizes up, just reduce the heat and add a little more milk while stirring.
Drizzle a little olive oil on the bottom of a 9- by 12-inch casserole dish.
Arrange the thinly sliced potatoes in 1 layer, overlapping the edges like shingles. Pour a small amount of the cheese sauce over the first potato layer and repeat until you’ve made as many layers as possible and still have about a scant cup of sauce to drizzle over the top.
Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes, until bubbling. Remove foil and bake for another 15–20 minutes, until the top is bubbly and browned. P
* Tobasi, produced exclusively by Cricket Creek Farm, is similar to Taleggio, a semisoft, washed-rind cheese from northern Italy. It is characteristically aromatic yet mild in flavor with an unusual fruity tang. Tobasi is available in: Great Barrington at Berkshire Co-op, and Guido’s; in Lenox at Spirited and Nejaime’s; in Pittsfield at Berkshire Organics; and in Williamstown at Wild Oats and at the Cricket Creek Farm Store