Pimento Cheese Potato Gratin

Looking for a little something different to serve at a holiday meal this year? Look no further. The Lee brothers (of boiled peanut fame) have concocted an American twist on the classic French gratin.

You may remember my adventures with pimento cheese a couple of years ago. P. cheese, as a friend and I started calling it when I took it as my mission to make the best version of the spread ever, is a Southern staple and quite rightly so, as it's versatile (put it in tea sandwiches! on a burger! in celery stalks! on crackers! eat it off of a spoon!) and scrumptious. Leave it to the Lee boys—who have an award-winning cookbook that I'm dying to own—to take p. cheese to the next level.

Extra-sharp Cheddar, heavy cream, roasted red peppers, a hint of chili, potatoes—are you starting to feel happy? Thought so. We made this dish twice this week and we're converts. The usual potatoes au gratin now seem bland and uninteresting in comparison.

The only change I made to the recipe is that I diced the roasted peppers instead of laying them over the potatoes whole. I found that it was easier to scatter the peppers evenly that way. And be aware that if you want to fill, say, a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, you'll need to double the recipe. A single recipe works great in an 8-by-8 pan or similar sized gratin dish.

This is a dish that doesn't take much effort but tastes like it did. And the gold-and-red colors make it quite festive looking.

Pimento Cheese Potato Gratin
Recipe by Matt and Ted Lee, via the Paula Deen Web site. The recipe also appears in the Lees' newest cookbook, Simple Fresh Southern.

3 teaspoons salt, plus more to taste (divided)
1 1⁄2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1⁄4-inch thick rounds
3⁄4 cup heavy cream
3 shallots, finely diced (scant 1⁄2 cup)
1⁄4 teaspoon crushed dried red chile flakes
1⁄2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
One 9-ounce jar roasted red peppers or piquillo peppers, with their liquid
8 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, coarsely grated (about 2 cups)

Heat the oven to 375 °F, with racks positioned in the middle and the top third of the oven.

In a 3- to 4-quart stockpot, bring 2 quarts water and 2 teaspoons of the salt to a boil. Add the potatoes and cook for 10 minutes. Then drain, and set them aside.

Combine the cream, shallots, chile flakes, remaining 1 teaspoon salt, the black pepper, and 2 tablespoons of the liquid from the jar of roasted peppers in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook until the chile flakes have begun to stain the cream, about 2 minutes. Add half of the cheese and stir until it melts, about 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat.

Layer roughly a third of the potatoes in a 6-cup baking dish, overlapping them slightly so that they fit in an even layer. Scatter half of the roasted peppers on top of the potatoes (cut up any peppers that have remained whole so that they lie flat), and repeat layering potatoes and peppers until all the peppers and potatoes have been used. Pour the cream mixture over the potatoes and peppers, and agitate the dish to distribute the liquid throughout. Cover with aluminum foil and bake on the middle rack for 15 minutes.

Uncover the dish, sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top, and place the dish on the top oven rack. Bake for 8 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and gently browned on top. Serve immediately.

We have what is considered the old-fashioned type of gas oven, in which the heating element (and thus the broiler) is below the oven. So, I didn't mess around with moving the gratin from one oven rack to another; I just put it on a rack in the top third of the oven, and it took longer than the 8 minutes suggested in the recipe to brown the top. I think I baked it for about 30 minutes total. Just look for the sauce to reduce a bit and the top to be browned to your liking.