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If snow fall sends you spinning into Alpine fantasies of skiing and quaint chalets, this tartiflette recipe is for you. A traditional dish from the French Alps, tartiflette is an avalanche of melted cheese over just-cooked potatoes, slalomed with sautéed onions and studded with bacon. Serve as a soporific main course, or scene-stealing side.
Ripe, soft and smelly reblochon cheese makes this dish authentic (although I’ve used camembert). However, odour-averse cheese-lovers can make a similar vegetarian dish, rosemary potatoes au gratin, with a hard, yellow, mildly fragrant Comté, so as not to miss out of the après ski experience.
What IS tartiflette?
Being so close to France, I am spoilt for all good things French; wine, cheese, perfume, berets. OK, I might not wear a beret. But I am a committed consumer of the first two.
Tartiflette is one of their finest exported recipes, and how the French do comfort food. Classy, cozy, satisfying and made with fancy cheese. Reblochon (said cheese) is so fancy in fact, you might not even find it outside of France. So, I’ve used camembert instead.
This dish, originating from high in the French Alps more than three centuries ago, is essentially cheese melted over potatoes. It makes for a warming, filling post-ski snack, served with crusty bread, French saucisson, mixed mushroom pâté and a handful of miniature pickles, washed down with white wine. However, there is no need to wait until ski season to enjoy it!
Linguistic fact for any other language nerds like me: the word tartiflette is actually derived from an old local word for ‘potato’.
Cheesy potatoes recipe
Tartiflette, cheesy potatoes, is a super simple, winter warmer of a recipe. It takes only a few classic kitchen ingredients, bar the cheese (but I’ll get to that!), is low on the skill-scale and ready in about an hour. So, about that cheese…
Cheese: If you’re going full French and can find it, round, washed-rind reblochon is the one. It’s fruity then nutty and melts like milky lava. Camembert, which I’ve used, is more buttery in flavour but similar in shape and ooze. Alternatively, Italian taleggio or a firmer Gruyère could be used if they’re more to your taste.
Potatoes: Use waxy, like Charlotte (UK) or red potatoes (US) as they will hold their shape, not collapsing under the weight of the cheese. Avoid floury, this could end in sludgy catastrophe.
Bacon: I’ve used lardons as they are pre-chopped and have the ideal fat to meat ratio. They’ll dissolve quickly and seamlessly into the dish giving a salty twist. Use pancetta or bacon if they’re more easily sourced where you are.
Onions and garlic: I mean, it’s a French dish.
Butter: see above.
Wine: Dry white, the Frencher the better! I could go into great detail here, but I’ll spare you on this occasion. Just promise you’ll serve the rest of the bottle with the dish.
Cream: This is optional. Less traditional recipes will include either crème fraiche or single (light) cream. I’ve used single because in for centime, in for a franc, eh? There’s no need to flood the potatoes with the cream, just a drizzle is enough to keep the slopes slippery.
Recipe Tips and Notes
- As I mentioned, reblochon cheese is the traditional ingredient, but it is almost impossible to source in North America and only sighted at specialist fromageries in the UK. At a mountain-peak price!
- Reblochon is similar in appearance and texture to camembert, so that will make a worthy substitute.
- And yes, you can eat the rind too. It will get a little crispy and dark in the oven. Who leaves the crispy bits??
- Potatoes should be waxy, not starchy. Waxy will hold their shape better, rather than going a bit mashy.
- Don’t skip salting the water. Potatoes love salt. Let them have it or they can taste a bit bland.
- The classic Savoy method (Savoy is the region the dish comes from) will see chefs first boiling the potatoes and then oven baking them or frying them butter, before assembly. Decadent as that sounds, it’s overkill in my opinion.
- There’s no cream in the original recipe, but there is no judgement here if you choose to add it. I did!
- Finally, feel free to experiment with the cheeses of your choice. Especially if you’re not actually France French.
Serving suggestions
Luxuriously cheesy and pleasingly heavy with potatoes, this truly is a food coma-inducing dish. Although it’s usually served as the main event, I sometimes serve it as a side as it can be overwhelmingly rich for some more delicate diners.
Tartiflette as a main course benefits from being offset with vinegary pickles, like cornichons, a sturdy bitter leaf dressed salad (think radicchio, frisée, watercress), and some salty charcuterie.
If you are a subscriber to the carbs-on-carbs diet, hunks of crusty baguette can ski lift the cheesy potatoes to the crevasse of your mouth.
As a side it’s best with a simply presented pork or chicken. Pork tenderloin with lemony green beans, or roast chicken with bitey broccoli in vinaigrette would be my choices.
And white wine, of course.
Storage and leftovers
There are some strict rules to this cheesy potatoes recipe:
- Don’t think you can get away with cooking this ahead of time.
- Serve it straight from the oven (for ultimate ooziness).
- Leftover cheese will lose its creaminess and can’t be revived by a blast in the microwave (meaning eat it all up when you have the chance!).
- Remember you’ve used waxy potatoes for this potato bake so mashing the remains into tomorrow’s creamed potatoes might not work. But go ahead if you must- no-one’s watching.
More side dishes to try
- Herb and Garlic Mashed Potatoes
- Hot Honey Baked Camembert in Bread Bowl
- Hasselback Potatoes with Gremolata
- Walnut Beet Salad with Garlic Mayonnaise Dressing
Tartiflette
Ingredients
- 1kg / 2 lbs waxy potatoes (4-5 medium), peeled and sliced thickly (such as Charlotte in the UK and red potatoes in the US)
- 150g / 5 oz bacon lardons
- 1-2 tbsp butter
- 1 large onion, or 2 small ones, diced
- 2 cloves garlic
- 80ml / 1/3 cup dry white wine
- 170ml / 2/3 cup single / heavy cream , or creme fraiche
- 500g / 18oz Reblochon cheese, or 2 Camembert cheese wheels, split in half lengthwise
Instructions
- Peel the potatoes and slice them thickly. Parboil the potatoes in well salted water for 3 minutes after boiling, drain and steam dry.
- While the potatoes are cooking, sauté the bacon lardons over medium heat until the fat renders, then add the sliced onions and continue cooking over low heat until the onions are tender and turn golden. You might need to add 1-2 tbsp of butter to the pan if they bacon wasn’t fatty enough. Towards the end of the sautéing time add the minced garlic and stir fry for 30 seconds, then deglaze the pan with the white wine and cook it down until it evaporates.
- Remove the bacon and onions from a pan and arrange par-boiled potatoes slices in the same pan. Season the potatoes with a pinch of salt. Then top them with a later of the bacon and onions and drizzle the cream all over.
- Split the cheese wheels in half lengthwise and arrange directly on top of the potatoes, bacon and onion cut side down.
- Cook at 200C/400F for 20 minutes or until the cheese has melted into the potatoes.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
