When your CSA hands you sweet potatoes, make sweet potato pie.

Believe it or not, I’m a CSA newbie. For years, I had wanted to join a CSA, which stands for community-supported agriculture. You know how it works: you pay upfront for a share of the fruit or vegetable (or meat or dairy) harvest from a local farm and every week, or every other week, you get a share of what was harvested. It’s the ultimate in seasonal, local produce.

But my husband just didn’t get it. “Why take what the farm sends you when you can just go to the farmers’ market and pick out what you like,” he asked. Because it’s fun! It’s fun to see what was harvested that week. It’s fun to challenge yourself as a cook and figure out what to do with a rutabaga or kolhrabi or all those other vegetables that you know you should buy but don’t.

Then again, there are plenty of people who agonize over using up their CSA share. I know this because they email me. “What can I do with three heads of lettuce,” they ask me in desperation. Um…make a lot of salad? Maybe my husband has a point.

Notice the pieces of butter in the pie crust. That ensures a flaky result.

But this year, for the first time, I went ahead and bought a weekly fall vegetable (and dairy and egg) CSA share from Sandhill Organics for the weeks after the farmers’ market closes. You see? I won’t be able just to go the farmers’ market and pick out what I want. Joining a CSA is my way of extending farmers’ market season by a few extra weeks.

But almost immediately I experienced the drawbacks of joining a CSA when I received half a dozen sweet potatoes in my first share. No one in my house eats sweet potatoes. At least no one in my house thought they ate sweet potatoes. So I set about changing their minds.

My first attempt at converting my family to sweet potato acceptance was sweet potato pancakes. Everyone here loves pancakes and sweet potato pancakes would only be sweeter and more colorful than regular pancakes, right? Wrong. The pancakes were a big hit with me and Zuzu and no one else.

After that, I gave up trying to be cute and just went straight-up dessert with the remaining sweet potatoes. No one can object to sweet potato pie.

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, it is time to embrace all things pie. Sweet potato pie is not usually on our Thanksgiving menu, but after crafting this killer recipe, I am definitely adding it. It’s not weird to have sweet potato and pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, right? I mean, that’s just being a good American.

Here is one reason that sweet potato pie might even trump my previous favorite, pumpkin pie: this recipe uses only a half cup of cream, a fraction of the amount of cream plus half-and-half that my pumpkin pie recipe calls for. Roasted, mashed sweet potato is so thick and creamy and sweet, it doesn’t need nearly as much doctoring as that canned puréed pumpkin does.

But then, of course, I gild the lily by adding maple whipped cream to the finished pie. Sweet potatoes just beg for the earthy taste of maple. I used maple sugar that I bought on a trip to Vermont this summer and smiled thinking back to that July weekend that I spent with one of my dearest friends. Wouldn’t it be nice if all our Thanksgiving cooking could remind us of happy moments from the past year?

Consider this post the first of many with recipes to help make this Thanksgiving the most delicious one in memory. All this month I will be sharing my favorite recipes for the biggest meal of the year. So be sure to check back often, sign up for email updates using the box under my picture, like my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram so you won’t miss any recipes.

Do you get your vegetables from a CSA? Why or why not? What was the strangest thing that ever came in your CSA box?

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Sweet Potato Pie

Ingredients

• 4 large sweet potatoes
Crust
• 7 ounces cold, unsalted butter
• 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ½ cup ice water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice or red wine vinegar
Filling
• 1/3 cup each granulated and brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp each cinnamon and ginger
• 1/2 tsp each cloves and allspice
• Pinch salt
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
Whipped cream
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 TB maple sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with foil. Spray sheet with nonstick cooking spray or oil it lightly.
2. Cut sweet potatoes in half and place cut-side down on the baking sheet.
3. Roast the sweet potatoes in the oven until soft, 45 minutes to an hour. When cool enough to handle, scoop the flesh from the skins and place it a bowl.
4. Mash the sweet potato flesh by hand, or puree in a food processor for a smoother result. Set aside.
5. To make the crust, cut the butter into small cubes and place in the freezer.
6. Combine the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to mix. Add the chilled butter to the dry ingredients and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
7. Combine the lemon juice or vinegar and ice water and add six tablespoons of the mixture to the ingredients in the food processor. Pulse several times until combined. Pinch a bit of the dough and if it holds together, you do not need to add more liquid. If it is still dry, add more of the liquid, one-half tablespoon at a time.
8. Remove the dough to a bowl or a well-floured board.
9. Knead the dough until it forms a ball. Divide the dough into two and wrap each half well in plastic wrap. Place half the dough in the refrigerator to relax for at least a half-hour. (Can be done in advance.) Reserve the other half for another use.
10. If your dough was chilled for longer than thirty minutes, remove from the refrigerator and allow to soften for ten to fifteen minutes before rolling it out.
11. Prior to rolling out the dough, strike it with your rolling pin to flatten. This will soften it further.
12. Turn the oven up to 375 and grease the bottom and sides of a 8-inch pie plate.
13. Liberally dust a pastry board or mat and your rolling pin with flour.
14. Roll the dough out, rotating it and turning it frequently and adding more flour as necessary to keep it from sticking, until it is the size of your pie plate and between ¼ and ⅛ of an inch thick.
15. Carefully center the pie dough in the plate and press it into the bottom and sides. Trim or fold over any excess dough around the edges and make a pretty crimped crust by pinching with your fingers.
16. Place the crust in the refrigerator until ready to use.
17. In a standing mixer, combine two cups mashed potato puree, sugars, eggs and spices. Whisk until combined.
18. Add cream and whisk again.
19. Pour filling into chilled pie crust. (If desired, brush the exposed crust with cream or a beaten egg for a glossy finish.)
20. Bake for 45 minutes until set.
21. Cool on a wire rack. Cool completely before cutting.
22. To make whipped cream, add cream to the bowl of a standing mixer and beat at high speed. Gradually add maple sugar. Beat until cream forms stiff peaks.
23. Serve each slice with a dollop of whipped cream.

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