My Tartiflette Recipe

Have I ever had a traditional French Tartiflette? No.

Would my version insult actual French cooks? Probably.

Am I going to share my recipe anyway? Absolutely.

The reason I love this recipe, is that it is easy and simple but still super tasty. I think it is a dish often served in the skiing areas – warm and hearty and perfect for after you’ve spent the day risking your neck sliding down a mountain repeatedly on your chosen variety of tea-tray (ski/snowboard/sled… they’re all just specialised tea-trays) .

I have never set foot on a ski slope in my life, but I can confirm it is also perfect at the end of a day that has involved wet school runs, or anything else cold/wet/stressful. Or just at the end of a day ending in ‘y’ to be honest.

My recipe serves 4, but it is pretty easy to adapt to however many you are cooking for. There are never leftovers, they get eaten long before they are in danger of meeting the fridge.

You Will Need…

• 1 kg potatoes – thickly sliced (I don’t peel them because I’m lazy, you might want to)
• 2 onions – thinly sliced (I usually use white ones, but have used red in the past)
• 1 clove of garlic – minced
• 200g cooking bacon – diced/chopped (or lardons or diced pancetta or just bits of left over ham/bacon/sausage)
• A splash of white wine (or a white wine stock pot)
• 1 whole Camembert (or Reblochon if you can find it)
• About 1tbsp butter
• Salt & Pepper

and

• Saucepan
• Frying Pan
• Baking Dish
• Oven

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 200°C/400°F (I think that’s Gas Mark 6?)
2. Put your sliced potatoes in a saucepan of salted water, bring to the boil, and cook for around 10 minutes. Try not to overcook them here, or they will fall apart when you try to construct everything.
3. Once cooked, drain them and put them to one side.
4. While the potatoes are cooking, soften the onions in the butter in a frying pan with the garlic for 3 or 4 minutes.
5. Chuck the bacon into the frying pan and cook for a further 5 minutes.
6. If you are using wine, chuck a splash in now to deglaze the pan and allow it to reduce down for a few more minutes. If you don’t happen to have wine open or handy, a splash of stock works just fine here instead. I like to use one of those white wine stock pots and a tiny bit of water to help it melt down.
7. Season to taste with salt and pepper – just remember the bacon is already quite salty so it might not need much more adding!
8. Take your baking dish and grease it with a little butter, before adding a single layer of potato slices to the bottom.
9. Spoon over a layer of your onion and bacon mix, then top with more potato. Keep repeating this until everything is in the dish! It’s best if the top layer is Potato, but it doesn’t really matter.
10. Cut the cheese in half horizontally to make two thin rounds, and plonk it on the top, with the crust upwards. (I threw some fresh sprigs of rosemary on the top here, but that’s just because our Rosemary plant is trying to take over the world so I try to show it who is boss by stealing sprigs whenever possible)
11. Pop the dish in the oven and bake for around 30 minutes until the cheese is melted and golden and bubbling.
12. Serve!

And that’s it! I have wavy potatoes because I happen to own a funky crinkle slicer thing (it’s a Pampered Chef one – pretty sure my Mum gave it to me because she had it and never ever used it but she knew I’m a sucker for stupid stuff like wavy vegetables) but I’m pretty sure the traditional dish has normal smooth sliced potatoes.

Let me know if you give it a go!