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tarte au jambon et a l ail

Rustic regional dishes & savoury baking

Tarte au Jambon et à l’Ail

By Pierre Koffmann

Sweet roasted garlic and savoury Bayonne ham fill Pierre Koffmann's tart, their richness held in a soft custard beneath the edge of a crisp pastry shell. Duck fat mellows three whole garlic heads; parsley adds freshness, and crumbled bread gives the milk-and-yolk filling its body. A hot slice and a glass of fruity Gascony white make an inviting lunch, with the ham and garlic carrying the flavour.

Prep
Not stated
Cook
Not stated
Total
Not stated
Serves4–6
Jump to recipe ↓Matching Food & Wine / Fiona Beckett ↗

Ingredients

Ingredients

Method

  1. Heat oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6. Cut three 10 cm squares of foil. Place one garlic head and one-quarter of the duck fat on each, wrap tightly and roast 20–25 minutes until soft.
  2. Heat remaining quarter of fat in a frying pan. Fry ham about 10 seconds per side, adding parsley at the last moment.
  3. Mix milk, egg yolks and breadcrumbs; season with pepper and refrigerate until needed.
  4. Roll pastry to fit a 20 cm flan dish and line it. Blind-bake in the hot oven for 10 minutes.
  5. Unwrap and peel garlic. Put it into the partly baked case with ham. Pour in custard and bake 25 minutes. Serve hot.

Equipment

Foil, three 10 cm squares; Roasting pan; Frying pan; Mixing bowl; 20 cm flan dish; Rolling pin; Blind-baking weights

Notes

  • Roast the garlic first: wrap the heads tightly in individual foil parcels with duck fat. Peel only once they are soft.
  • Briefly fry the ham: give the thin slices about ten seconds on each side in the remaining duck fat, with parsley added at the end.
  • Prepare the case: line the 20 cm flan dish and blind-bake before filling. Keep the milk, yolks and breadcrumbs chilled until you need the custard.
  • Serve hot, following Koffmann's Method. For a tart made ahead, Beckett suggests that room temperature could work too; her suggestion is separate from his hot serving instruction.
  • Choose a southwestern wine: a fruity white Côtes de Gascogne, Gascony rosé or red Gaillac are Beckett's recommendations.
  • Timing: garlic roasting takes 20–25 minutes, blind-baking ten minutes and the filled tart 25 minutes. Pastry work can overlap with the garlic; preparation and full elapsed time are not specified.

Photos

1 photo
Bayonne ham and roasted garlic tartFinished dishBayonne ham and roasted garlic tart

Tarte au Jambon et à l’Ail

Recipe photos

About this dish

This tart belongs to the summer chapter of Pierre Koffmann's Memories of Gascony. The book follows the seasonal food of his grandparents' rural home, and the recipe brings three familiar southwestern ingredients together: garlic, duck fat and Bayonne ham. Fiona Beckett shares it as a favourite from the book, published by Mitchell Beazley.

Bayonne ham's story reaches into the Adour basin, where it is salt-cured using Salies-de-Béarn salt. The port through which the hams were traded gave them the Bayonne name. Its savoury character gives the tart a sense of place even in a small quantity.

The garlic receives the longest preparation, wrapped in foil with duck fat and roasted until soft. The ham needs only a fleeting turn in the pan. Egg yolks set the milk filling, while crumbled white bread gives it body. These simple parts fill a partly baked shell, making a substantial tart from a short ingredient list.

Recipe and cooking notes adapted from Matching Food & Wine / Fiona Beckett.