Mushroom and Greens (and Sausage) Gratin

The original plan was to make a meat-free casserole for dinner one Sunday a few weeks ago.  Not for any particular reason, but I’d seen a recipe for a mushroom and greens gratin in the New York Times’ Dining Section and I had mentally filed it.

Then enter Nick Spencer of Spencer’s Traditional Pork Bangers.  Mark and I struck up a conversation with him at the indoor Logan Square Farmer’s Market.  We had a heated debate about whether to buy traditional bangers, herb bangers or back bacon.  We came home with the traditional variety with the idea to add them to the gratin.  So much for the vegetarian dinner aspirations.

I can't find the link to the NYT recipe that inspired this, but we changed it enough that you wouldn't recognize it anyway:

Mushroom and Greens (and Sausage) Gratin

About 1.5 pounds of greens -- I used a big bag of pre-cut collard greens

1 onion, finely chopped

1/2 pound mushrooms (I used baby bellas), sliced

1/2 to 1 pound sausage (or leave out altogether)

3 cloves garlic, finely minced

1/2 cup grated Gruyere

1/2 cup grated Parmesan (split in half since you'll use this in two steps)

1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs

3 eggs

1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375, grease a medium casserole dish

Bring a pot of heavily salted water to a boil and blanch the greens for 3-4 minutes to soften.  Use tongs to move them to a pot of ice water to stop the cooking after this step.  Once cooled, drain and squeeze the water out, chop if your greens aren't already.

Heat some olive oil in a pan and saute the onion and mushroom for a few minutes until the mushrooms soften up.  I, personally, hate raw mushroom, so I tend to let them get nice and brown.  Add the garlic and softened greens during the last few minutes of cooking.  Salt and pepper to taste - but remember you're adding salty cheese and sausage, so don't go nuts.

Mark came into the kitchen around this time (I suspect it was to make sure I didn't short change the sausage) and he cut up and browned the bangers.  They really are good -- a nice little hint of nutmeg (I think?).  If you didn't have the meat police taking matters into their own hands, you could brown the sausage first, drain it, and cook the veggies in the sausage grease.  Just sayin.

Add the sausage to the veggies, which will look like this:

Whisk together the eggs, milk and Gruyere.  Whisk in half the Parmesan, but make sure to save some to mix with the breadcrumbs. Season with a little salt and pepper and mix this in with the veggie/sausage mix.  Spread everything into your greased casserole.

Toss your panko with a little bit of olive oil to coat them so they brown up nice, add the rest of the Parmesan and mix well.  Sprinkle on top of everything and bake for 35-40 minutes.  We ate this up in no time and I'd make it for brunch some time, especially if we get our hands on more of Spencer's bangers.