Ingredients
- 2 C. chicken broth
- 1 med. onion, minced
- 2 C. low fat milk
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- 2 heads fennel (about 4″ wide)
- 2 lb. Russet potatoes
- 2 T. Parmesan cheese, shredded
- 1/4 C. cornstarch
- 1 tsp. olive oil
- 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 1/2 C. Fontina cheese
- 2 10-ounce packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
- 1/2 lb. thin sliced cooked ham
- 1/2 tsp. salt
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine chicken broth and cornstarch, mix until smooth and set aside.
- In a 2-quart saucepan over high heat, saute onion in oil until limp. Add chicken broth mixture, milk, nutmeg and pepper; bring to a boil. Remove from heat, add Fontina cheese and stir until melted.
- Squeeze liquid out of spinach. Rinse fennel and chop feathery green leaves, reserving 1/2 cup. Trim and discard remaining stalks, root ends, bruised areas and coarse fibers from fennel heads; cut heads crosswise into 1/8″ slices. Scrub and peel potatoes; cut lengthwise into 1/8″ slices.
- Lightly oil a shallow 3-quart casserole dish. Layer 1/3 of the potatoes, overlapping slightly, on the bottom. Cover potatoes with 1/2 of the fennel, 1/2 of the ham and 1/2 of the spinach. Spoon 1/3 of the Fontina sauce over the spinach. Repeat layers. Spoon 1/3 of sauce on top of spinach and top with remaining 1/3 of potatoes. Spoon remaining 1/3 of sauce over top. Bake, covered, at 375 for 30 mins.
- Uncover and continue baking until top is richly browned and potatoes are tender when pierced, about 1 hour. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, chopped fennel leaves and bake 5 mins. longer. Let stand 10 mins. before cutting. Serves 4-6.
Reviews
A balance between a ham and a veggie. It’s a must try for a potato and pasta dish.
This was quite tasty and different……but the instructions need some tweeking……cook time was way off more to 1 hr or 1.5 hrs….I did convention bake at 375 which and after 30 minutes the potatoes were still “al dente” which for a casserole, to me, is unacceptable. Also, is would do a white sauce with flour instead of cornstarch!!!
I, too had some leftover ham and decided to try this recipe. Since it didn’t have buckets of heavy cream, I felt good about it and my husband thought it was great. And, I got some spinach into him! Definitely try this – it sounds odd, I know, but sure was tasty.
To much spinach, not enough ham, to many potatoes and to much nutmeg.
When looking to use up some extra ham from Easter I came across this recipe. It was delicious! No butter in the sauce and only 1/2 cup of fontina. I did up the salt a bit and had to use about 3/4 lb. ham to complete the layers. I highly recommend it!