I ended up spending a few extra days at the beach recently, that were unplanned, 🙂 and when I headed home mid week, I knew I would have to think about dinner that night. Looking in the beach refrigerator I saw a lot of food that would have to be packed up and toted home
OR
I could make a casserole, freeze it overnight, and it could thaw on the way home and be popped in the oven when I arrived.
A pie is born!
I took inspiration from my September Paint Bucket, my list of recipes to make or try, and saw the Strata with Spicy Sausage, Gruyere, Spinach and Shallots from Simply Suzanne’s
I didn’t have bread for the strata but I did have a pie crust, so I got that baking
One side slumped a little but, that won’t matter in the end. I like to spread a good mustard on the bottom crust of my savory pies for a little extra flavor layer
I had lots of fresh vegetables, onions, peppers and spinach, to go along with the sausage ~ just throw the spinach on top of the cooked veggies and cover to wilt
Add drained and cooked sausage back into the mix and stir to combine
Place sausage mixture into the prepared pie crust and add the grated cheese. I used smoked Gouda, it has a great and different flavor
Whisk eggs with milk or cream and season well with salt and pepper
Carefully pour over all, letting it seep in everywhere
Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until set in the middle and golden. Let sit 5-10 minutes before slicing, or cool and then wrap and freeze. Bake frozen pie at 350 for 30-45 minutes until thoroughly heated
Dinner’s ready!
This pie came together in less than 20 minutes while my AC guy was installing a new thermostat and showing me how to use the App for it on my phone…you know, I was stirring and sauteing and saying uh huh…
He kept asking me when I was serving lunch…
The AC got zapped by lightning the night before and I woke up to a very COLD house! It was stuck on! The Nest thermostat* got fried, and he put in a Honeywell which works much better. I am a little spoiled being able to control the temperature with a tap on my iPhone…
Technology! Remember the good old days? Simpler times? You know, when you had to get up to change the channel or answer the phone? 🙂
Sausage, Spinach & Peppers Smoked Gouda Pie
Ingredients
- 3/4 lb sausage
- 1 large sweet onion chopped
- 2 colored sweet peppers chopped [I used orange]
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 4 cups fresh spinach
- 8 oz smoked Gouda grated
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup 1/2 and 1/2 or 2% milk
- salt and pepper
- mustard
- 1 baked pie crust*
Instructions
- Prepare pie crust by spreading the bottom with a thin coat of mustard.
- Saute sausage until brown and crumbled and drain well.
- Reserve some of the sausage drippings and saute the onions and peppers with garlic until soft. When vegetables are done, top with spinach and cover pan to wilt spinach. When spinach has wilted, stir into vegetables.
- Add sausage back to pan and combine.
- Put half of the sausage mix into pie crust and top with 1/2 of cheese. Repeat layers.
- Beat eggs with cream and season well with salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture over filling slowly so it fills all the nooks and crannies. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until middle is set and pie is golden. Let sit for 5 minutes before cutting into wedges. Makes 6-8 servings.
Notes
This really was a take-out Tuesday! This pie served double duty as it kept other groceries cool as I drove 4 hours north from the beach, and it was heaven to slide this in the oven for a satisfying dinner after a long day~
Oh, and you don’t even have to use a pie crust if you want to lighten this up, just add 1 more egg and place everything in a greased baking dish for a delightful meal full of protein and vegetables~
Be sure to stop over at Simply Suzanne’s here to see her inspiring recipe
*FYI: we used the Nest thermostat for a year, and it tries to learn your patterns, which can be handy, but we don’t have any patterns, so it would just randomly make decisions for us, and set the temperature for us…like in the middle of a summer night it would switch to 85…
so far the Honeywell is much more well behaved 🙂
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I will be sharing this with the fabulous parties and blogs on my side bar and: