I was right. It was all downhill after the Caramel Apple Streusel Pie.

Not the greatest picture. Not the greatest pie. But, the pie, unlike the picture, shows promise.

It wasn’t that this pie wasn’t tasty – it definitely was! And it’s going to be a keeper, eventually… it just needs to some kinks worked out and adjustments made, which my talented assistant, Sammy (fabulous sister, darn fine cook) is in the process of testing out for me. So, don’t make this recipe yet! It will be improved upon very soon.

So, sausage and potato pie. I decided after the caramel apple perfection of Week 1 that I should next go for a savory pie, so as to lessen the competition. Wise choice. This pie is a riff on Irish potato pie, which uses thinly sliced potato, bacon, chives. (Layers of potatoes, little bits of bacon blessedly distributed throughout, flecks of chives adorning the top like savory sprinkles, a bit of heavy cream holding them all together inside a flaky crust—not much to dislike there.) I’ve made Italian sausage, potato, and sweet potato hashes before that we’ve really enjoyed, and I suspected it might transfer well into a savory pie.

It turned out that I was right – the simple crust compliments the flavors of the Italian sausage crumbles and the sweet potato/red potato mixture beautifully. But, by the time the potatoes were cooked all the way through in my too-hot oven, the top potatoes and the crust were burnt and tough. The flavors were so promising, though, that I think this pie merits rescuing. My guess is that the potatoes should be partially cooked (boiled) after being sliced but before being baked in the piecrust, and that the oven temperature and baking time should be reduced. Final goal: potatoes fully cooked and tender without necessitating a tough, burnt crust.

All of that to say, DON’T MAKE THIS PIE.

YET.

It has gone to the test kitchen, and hopefully will return soon in its new and greatly improved state, at which point I will excitedly post the edited recipe.

Sausage Potato Pie (made 9/26/2015)
In case you missed my several iterations of it above, don’t make this recipe! This pie recipe is only posted for the purposes of posterity, to remind myself that I’m the goof who didn’t prebake the potatoes at all and had to wait two hours for her supper to cook that night. Lesson learned.

Ingredients:
1 unbaked piecrust, rolled into a deep pie dish*
1 lb. loose Italian sausage (Because we always have ground pork in our freezer, we tend to make our Italian sausage from scratch, using Alton Brown’s recipe and omit the casing process. We like our sausage heavily seasoned, so you may opt to amp it up with extra black pepper, oregano, and/or parsley.)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp. olive oil
2 ½ lbs. of a mixture of sweet potatoes and white potatoes, washed (I used a mixture of about one-third regular sweet potatoes, one-third O’Henry sweet potatoes, and one-third red potatoes)
¾ c. heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. kosher salt
fresh-ground black pepper

Cook and drain Italian sausage in a large frying pan over medium high heat; set aside. In the same pan, add olive oil and onion, and sauté on medium heat until the onion begins to brown. Set aside. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Peel sweet potatoes, if using. Slice all potatoes in rounds approximately ¼” thick. In a large bowl, combine potatoes, sautéed onions, sausage, salt, and several grinds of fresh black pepper. Toss to mix well, then arrange in the unbaked piecrust. For all of the filling to fit, the potato slices will need to lay flat in the pie pan. Drizzle the whipping cream over the top.

Bake at 400 degrees for almost 2 freaking hours, or until the potatoes are soft and hopefully the rest of it isn’t toasted to a crisp.

* One of these days I’ll sit down and write a post exclusively about piecrust. I come from a hardcore homemade from-scratch piecrust family. I won’t cast you out of my life forever if you use store-bought piecrust (just my kitchen), but I can guarantee that my mom won’t eat your pie.