I brought our dinner ingredients to Hannah’s today, intending to cook them at her house and bring home at five o’clock a ready-to-eat dinner (spinach ricotta pie from the Moosewood Cookbook ). Because it’s just as easy to make two, I made an extra pie crust in case we needed it for lunch.
The pre-heating oven seemed a little too aromatic, and I opened it to discover a pan of already-roasted sweet potatoes. "Oh, I forgot about those last night!" said Hannah. "They weren’t done at dinner time, so we went ahead and ate, and I haven’t thought about them since."
I suggested she boil them for stock, but then it occurred to me that we could make a pie out of them. "Something eggy, with nutmeg, like a custard pie, but savory." Hannah remembered a recipe for a savory custard from one of her cookbooks , and together we developed from it this recipe:
Savory Sweet Potato Pie
4 sweet potatoes, roasted until very soft
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 c. cream (or milk)
2 T minced onion
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tsp nutmeg (or more to taste)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper (or more to taste)
1 unbaked, unsweetened pie crust
Arrange pie crust in Pyrex pie plate. Remove sweet potatoes from skins and mash well. Stir in eggs, onion, cream, salt, and spices. Taste to correct seasoning; the black pepper should be noticeable. Pour into pie shell and bake at 375 F for 20 minutes or more until lightly browned.
We knew this one was a winner as soon as we took a bite. The kids liked it too. The savory, slightly spicy, slightly sweet flavor would be nice with some yogurt on the side and a very simply dressed salad.
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