Easy Sausage Potato Bake

Purple potatoes, those straggler shallots that I’ve been waiting to use and fresh sausage come together in this simple, satisfying dinner recipe: Easy Sausage Potato Bake.

“There’s only four ingredients in this?” my daughter asked as she peered over my shoulder while I typed the recipe. We’d just finished eating dinner on a warm May evening. The sun was almost completed descended for the night, and the warm air had given way to a cool breeze wafting through open windows. A warm day in May in Maine is nothing short of a gift — a delightful, lovely gift.

“Yep, it’s pretty simple. Did you like it?” I asked. I already knew the answer through; she’d cleaned her plate. Paige is a person who doesn’t eat much of foods she doesn’t enjoy. She’ll just take a few bites.

“Oh yes. Can I take it for lunch tomorrow too?”

I’ve been a parent for nearly 12 years now, and over the years I’ve heard all about picky kids who won’t eat this or that or everything. In a way, I’ve waited for the proverbial other shoe to drop, waited for one of my children to eschew all food. But it never happened.

I mean, sure, Paige won’t eat butternut squash or lobster, but the lobster is for ideological reasons. But aside from those two things, they eat pretty much everything. Somehow I hit the kid-tastebud jackpot with two salad-loving, broccoli-craving, fruit-devouring, spaghetti squash-slurping, sushi-adoring kids.

I don’t say that to brag, by any means.

It’s just that I’ve been asked for tips again and again over the years, and I’ve never really had an answer. How do you get kids to eat like that? I don’t know. How amazing that your kids like mushrooms/quinoa/sweet potatoes/clams/fill in the blank! How’d you do it? The truth is that I got lucky. There’s simply no magical formula.

What I can say is that I always assumed they would eat everything. I’m more surprised when they don’t like something.

This dish, a simple, simple bake featuring potatoes (I used purple ones I’d picked up at the farmers market some weeks back), shallots and sausage, scored big on the we-love-this scale. And the leftovers from this Easy Sausage Potato Bake, which I mixed with a little marinara sauce for variety, did too.

Purple potatoes may be a little unfamiliar (you can use whatever potatoes you like) but they are just as tasty as other varieties. These tasted like a russet potato. And shallots are merely little onion-cousins that bake sweetly and practically melt into the dish.

Want to try this? Making this recipe is as simple as layering the ingredients in a baking dish, seasoning them and then baking. That’s all.

And for the sausage, I used some caseless garlic sausage from Tangled Oak Farm in Monroe, Maine, whom we also get almost all the ground beef we eat from. Tangled Oak sells several varieties of sausage that would be delicious with this — or use whatever sausage you like. Caseless or not, just before it’s raw (and preferably good quality).

Like I said, this is a simple, easy dish. You really can’t go wrong for that.

Easy Sausage Potato Bake

Yield: 4 servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

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Ingredients

• 2 large shallots, cut into large chunks
• 1 lb new potatoes, quartered
• 1 lb raw sausage, cut into 1-inch pieces
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Add the shallots and potatoes to a 9x13-inch glass baking dish. Top with sausage pieces and season with salt and pepper.
3. Bake for 30 minutes, uncovered. Stir well. Return to the oven and cook for an additional 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are tender and lightly browned in places.
4. Serve.