There's Gold in Them Thar Taters!

Here's a very simple but delicious side dish for a winter dinner. Take six to eight medium sized Yukon Gold potatoes, and slice them longways in quarter inch thick slices (after washing them thoroughly). Slice thinly one medium sized white or yellow onion. Peel and cut in half eight to ten cloves of fresh garlic. In a round, four quart baking dish with lid pour three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Place the onion slices around the bottom of the dish until it is covered evenly. Then place the slices of potato around the dish in even layers while dispersing the pieces of garlic clove evenly around the layers of tater. When all the potato and garlic have been placed into the baking dish, drizzle some basil infused olive oil over the top of the taters. Finally, cover the dish with a generous layer of coarsely grated parmesan cheese. Sprinkling in a little oregano, sea salt or black pepper is optional, and I chose not to add any of those seasonings (I wanted to let the garlic be the star).

Cover the dish with the lid (preferably a clear glass lid), and bake the casserole at 400 degrees for about an hour (until the cheese is brown and crispy on top). Remove from the oven and let it sit for five minutes. Serve with a beef, pork, chicken or fish main dish and a salad or green veggie and you have a superior and scrumptious meal that will satisfy the most demanding and finicky eaters. I imagined this dish as I was making it a couple of hours ago, and then I cooked it! It's amazing how good a simple dish can be with the right combination of flavors and quality ingredients. The best part of cooking is that the huge number of ingredients available to us provides a seemingly limitless number of combinations for our vivid imaginations to conceive. So put those imaginations to work people!