I happened to have some potatoes, sage and fontina cheese that I had to use and came across Melissa Clark’s recipe for Mashed Potato Casserole with Sage and Fontina Cheese from Food and Wine Magazine. I did her recipe but when I tasted the potatoes they didn’t seem flavorful enough. Maybe it was a typo since her recipe didn’t include salt to boil the potatoes? I bet Mellisa Clark used better potatoes than mine. If you ever tasted potatoes from the farmers market you know that they taste a whole lot better than super market potatoes. She also maybe used a better quality fontina cheese that had more flavor so her recipe was good with better ingredients. I added additional spices and a 1/2 teaspoon of bomba (an Italian hot pepper condiment) and I thought the potatoes tasted much better. Incase you aren’t familiar with bomba it’s a delicious condiment that I highly recommend. It’s full of flavors and heat. A little bit just adds so much flavor to foods. Incase you are wondering the potatoes aren’t spicy but are very flavorful. Bomba is a secret weapon to make food delicious. I also cut her recipe in half because I didn’t need eight servings.

Ingredients for around 4 servings

1 1/2 lbs potatoes – peeled and cut in maybe 6 pieces

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

2 oz creme fraiche (or substitut sour cream or a thick yogurt)

1 1/2 teaspoon sage – chopped

4 oz fontina cheese – shredded

1 Tablespoon parsley leaves – chopped

1/2 teaspoon bomba

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

few grates of fresh ground nutmeg

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter – grated

2 1/2 Tablespoons bread crumbs

2 1/2 Tablespoons parmigiano reggiano – grated

small handful fresh sage leaves

A little oil to fry or oven fry the sage leaves

non stick spray or butter or oil to grease a small baking dish

Directions

Set oven to 400 degrees F. Grease your smaller baking dish and set it to the side.

The potato go in a pot and get covered well with water. Bring to medium boil and boil them till tender (usually 15 minutes). drain and mash them with butter, creme fraiche, chopped sage, fontina cheese, parsley, bomba, salt, peppers, nutmeg.

Add this mixture to your greased baking dish and smooth the top.

In a small bowl mix up the remaining butter, bread crumbs and parmigiana reggiano cheese and spread it out evenly over the potatoes.

Put in oven till the crumbs are nicely browned (about 15 minutes). Then cover to stop the browning for around 5 more minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

A special THANKS to Melissa Clark for her Mashed Potato Casserole Recipe that inspired my version.