…different at least from me, on my blog.  Maybe you’d like to try out some of my favourite recipes?  To test the water, as it were, I’m blogging one of our family favourites today.  Tartiflette is great with a green salad and chunky slices of crusty bread to soak up the juices!  Depending on comments—or lack of—I’ll put other favourite recipes on from time to time 🙂

Recipe: Tartiflette

Tartiflette is the perfect dish for almost anytime. Here’s a great recipe adapted from Sarah Woodward’s The Food of France.

For authenticity’s sake, try to get hold of a whole Reblochon cheese. Reminiscent of Camembert or Brie in flavour, texture and shape, Reblochon has the perfect melting quality for Tartiflette—it’s available from all good delicatessens in the UK and from larger supermarkets.

Tartiflette

An indulgent dish—it’s important to use a ripe Reblochon cheese.

Serves 4

5 or 6 medium-sized potatoes
2 large white onions, peeled and diced
2 thick rashers of streaky bacon, sliced (I add a 150g pack of pancetta cubes too!)
25g butter
1 garlic clove, peeled and cut in half
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 ripe Reblochon cheese

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 5.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil and cook the potatoes whole, in their skins, for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the onions and bacon in the butter in a heavy frying pan over a medium heat; they should sweat but not brown.

Drain the potatoes and as soon as they are cool enough to handle peel them — the quicker the better.  Slice thickly across.

Choose an ovenproof earthenware dish and rub it well with the cut halves of garlic. Layer half the sliced potatoes across the base, season, then scatter over the onion and bacon mixture.  Add the remaining potatoes and more seasoning.

Place the whole Reblochon on top. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 for a further 20—25 minutes.  The Reblochon should melt within its skin and the fat drip down while the potatoes crisp.