Baked Sweet Potatoes & Ham with Cheese

[kirra]

Baked Sweet Potatoes & Ham with Cheese

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes, chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 large russet potatoes, chopped into bite-sized pieces
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped (I used a red onion)
About 3/4 of a pound ham, chopped into bite-sized pieces (I used a ham steak that was maybe 1/2-inch thick)
2 to 3 smallish tomatoes
Fresh or dried herbs (I had some branches of oregano on the windowsill that had dried out, so I used the leaves from those. I think that sage, rosemary, or thyme—or dill—would be great in this dish.)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
About 1/2 pound Gruyère cheese, coarsely grated (You could try the Gruyère cheese product if you wanted to save $$$, or you could use regular Swiss or Mozzarella cheese.)

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 375 °F.

Wash and chop both kinds of potatoes into bite-sized pieces. Put the potatoes into a vegetable steamer in a large pot and cook until just tender when pierced with a fork (if you don't have a steamer, you could just boil the potatoes). While the potatoes are steaming, heat the oil and butter in a largeish skillet. When the butter foams, put in the chopped onions and ham. Sauté the mixture for about 10 minutes, or until the onions are nice and soft and have started to brown. Add the chopped tomatoes and the herb(s) of your choice, and grind in lots of fresh pepper. Add a bit of salt if desired. Cook over medium heat until the tomatoes have released their juices and the mixture is sauce-y.

When the potatoes are just tender, remove them from the steamer (or drain, if you boiled them). Butter a baking dish (I used a shallow 9- x 12-inch oval dish) and put about half of the potatoes into it. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper. Cover the potatoes with about half of the ham-onion-tomato mixture, then with about half the grated cheese. Layer in the rest of the potatoes (season with salt and pepper), the remaining ham-onion-tomato mixture, and the remaining cheese.

Bake at 375 °F for about 20 minutes, until cheese is melted and is starting to brown.