Tartiflette Sticks It To Your Ribs

This is a stick-in-the-ribs stuff, and perfect for a cold winter's day! This recipe is primarily potato with the usual accompanying allium vegetables, garlic and onions. With a thick creamy dairy, cheese that melts so beautifully and the final ingredient many people think is part of every French dish white wine. This is serious bubbly deliciousness!

Tartiflette is a dish from the Savoie and Haute Savoie regions of France. It is not unlike scalloped potatoes, but much richer. It is comparable to other French potato reicpes like

📋Ingredients

It is made with potatoes, Reblochon cheese, lardons, onions, garlic, whipping cream or crème fraîche, and white wine, all wrapped together in a favorite casserole dish.

If you are not familiar with Roblochon cheese because it is not available in your area and need suggestions for a different type, try these Camembert, Gruyere, Fortina, or Raclette. They all melt well into gooey delights.

Choose a waxy potato and be sure to cut them evenly, and as I have said many times a tool to help you do that will never be a bad purchase. A mandoline slicer is just the thing for slicing any vegetable in perfectly even thicknesses so they cook uniformly.

Here is the list:

• waxy potatoes (such as new potatoes, Yukon Gold, red potatoes, fingerlings, Desirée or Maris Piper, Red Bliss, pee wees)
• butter
• onion
• smoked bacon lardons
• dry white wine
• whipping cream or crème fraîche
• Reblochon cheese or substitute with Camembert, Gruyere, Fortina, or Raclette
• garlic

🔢Instructions

1. Boil the potatoes from cold in well-salted water until just tender to a fork, but not cooked right through. (Salt gives the humble potato more flavor and makes them cook faster.)
2. Drain well and leave to cool.
3. Meanwhile, melt half the butter in a frying pan and sauté the onions, garlic, and bacon until the onions are soft and both are beginning to brown.
4. Tip in the wine, bring to a simmer and reduce to nearly nothing.
5. Take off the heat and stir in the cream or crème fraîche.
6. Cut the potatoes into roughly 1 centimeter rounds or cubes, your choice. (I prefer rounds.)
7. Optional: Heat the remaining butter in a frying pan and sauté the potatoes until golden. This additional step reduces the subsequent baking time to 15 minutes.
8. Cut the cheese in half horizontally.
9. (This recipe assumes you will do this, but an alternative method is to slice the Reblochon as thinly as you can consistent with not making a mess of yourself and your kitchen, and then cover the whole of the top of the dish before baking.)
10. Cover the base of an ovenproof dish with half the potatoes. Spoon over half the onion and bacon mixture and season well with salt and pepper.
11. Repeat the layers, and finish by putting the Reblochon, rind uppermost, on top.
12. Bake for about 30-40 minutes until browned and bubbling. Keep checking to see if the potatoes are cooked. 

🔄Substitutions

• Reblochon cheese or substitute with Camembert, Gruyere, Fortina, or Raclette. The goal is to have a cheese that melts really well.
• Waxy potatoes new potatoes, Yukon Gold, red potatoes, fingerlings, Desirée or Maris Piper, Red Bliss, pee wees.

What Can Replace Wine In a Recipe?

If you do not have any wine in the house because you refrain from alcohol consumption or you have guests who don't drink alcohol then consider these replacements in your recipes.

If you are concerned about serving very young children food which contains alcohol, even though they will only consume a very small amount in their portion, you may want to make a small side dish of Tartiflette with one of the substitutes just for them. Alcohol will dissipate from a dish if it is cooked for several hours but even then there will likely be a percentage remaining.

• You can easily substitute wine in recipes with red or white vinegar.
• Fruit juices are also an acceptable alternative to wine especially if it has a strong flavor like pomegranate, cranberry juice, red or white grape juice.
• Ginger ale or apple juice also works for a white wine swap as they are light in color as white wine is and will not interfere with the color of your food.
• Soup stock is sometimes used but it will not add the zing that wine will unless you also add a little vinegar with it. But, think about the flavor of your stock and consider whether it will change the flavor of your recipe.
• Lemon juice can also make a great enhancement to a recipe instead of wine if the tartness of the fruit will go with the other ingredients.
• Tomato juice is another one to consider keeping in mind the extra flavor it will bring.
• The liquid from canned vegetables like mushrooms may also be used and consideration of the added salt to canned goods may make it a bad backup to wine.
• Or lastly, plain old water can be added to save the dish from being too dry. (Always replace the liquid amount with another liquid.)

How To Test Substitutions

If you were making a stew you could take a little out and add a little of the substitute to see if you like the flavor, but this recipe is a little different. Start with a little and work up to the full amount as you taste.

More Super Pommes (Potatoes) Recipes

• Gratin Dauphinois
• Pommes Boulangére
• Pommes Anna
• Pommes Lyonnaise
• Fondant Pommes

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📖 Recipe