You can never have enough potatoes at Thanksgiving dinner. There’s the classic mashed, and all the variations upon them, roasted, gratin, scalloped — even french fries would be good. Therefore we’re bringing you three different potato recipes today, so if you’re either picky, or just a glutton for potatoes, you should be covered.

First up, we’ve got this nice scalloped potatoes and fennel dish. I tend to prefer mashed potatoes with my turkey (well, with my gravy, really, if I’m being honest), but I do enjoy a good scalloped dish or gratin as well. This one was pretty easy to make (especially if you have a mandoline), and the addition of the fennel was a nice accent. But, in the end, it was good, tasty, creamy potatoes, with just the right amount of browning on top. This potato recipe makes enough for 12 side dishes at 70 cents per serving.

Scalloped Potatoes and Fennel, adapted from Bon Appetit, November 2008
6 garlic cloves, peeled, smashed
2-inch-long fresh rosemary sprigs
2 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
2 1/2 teaspoons coarse sea salt
3/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 large fresh fennel bulbs with fronds
3 1/2 pounds medium russet potatoes
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Preheat the oven to 350¬?F and place the rack in the center of the oven. Grab a large glass baking dish, and place the smashed garlic cloves and rosemary springs on the bottom of the dish. Combine the cream, coarse salt, and white pepper in a separate large bowl.

Prepare the fennel bulbs by cutting off the stalks and fronds, but reserve the fennel fronds for a finishing garnish. Cut the fennel bulbs in half and using a mandoline, thinly slice the fennel bulbs. If you don’t have a mandoline, you can slice them as thin as possible using a knife. Layer half of the fennel slices evenly atop the garlic and rosemary in the baking dish.

Peel the potatoes and place them immediately in a large bowl of cold water so they don’t turn brown. Thinly slice the potatoes into rounds with a mandoline, or carefully cut them with a knife. Immediately add the sliced potatoes to the bowl with the cream and make sure that all of the potatoes are fully coated with the mixture.

Arrange half of the potato slices evenly over the fennel in the baking dish, and reserve the leftover cream in the bowl. Repeat this layering process with the remaining fennel slices and then the potato slices. Pour the remaining cream mixture over the layers of fennel and potato in the baking dish.

Cut up the butter and arrange the cubes on top of the dish. Cover the baking dish with foil, making sure that the foil does not touch the potatoes.

Bake the scalloped potatoes under the foil until they are almost tender when pierced with a knife, around 1 hour and 15 minutes. Then increase the oven temperature to 425¬?F. Remove the foil and bake the dish uncovered until the potatoes are tender and the top is a deep golden brown, about 20 minutes longer.

Remove the potatoes from the oven and let them rest for 15 minutes. Sprinkle the top with the reserved fennel fronds and serve at your Thanksgiving dinner.