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Tartiflette in a brown handled dish on dark wood, with large melted Reblochon wedges.

Rustic regional dishes & savoury baking

Tartiflette

By Steve Groves

Tender cubes of potato take up the flavour of smoked bacon, onion and garlic before cream coats them and Reblochon melts over the top. The oven gives the cheese a golden crust, with a soft, rich filling underneath. Steve Groves’s tartiflette is a generous Savoyard supper for a cold evening. Bring it straight to the table, with sharp pickles, crisp salad and crusty bread alongside.

Prep
Not stated
Cook
Not stated
Published total
50 min
Serves2–4
Jump to recipe ↓Great British Chefs ↗

Ingredients

Tartiflette

To serve

Method

  1. Heat oil in the casserole over medium-high heat. Cook bacon until browned and its fat renders.
  2. Reduce to medium. Cook onion 2–3 minutes; add potatoes/garlic and stir-cook another 3–4 minutes.
  3. Add just enough water to cover potatoes. Increase heat; cook until evaporated and sizzling again, about 20 minutes. Meanwhile heat oven to 180°C / 356°F.
  4. Check potato tenderness; if needed, add more water and cook until completely evaporated again.
  5. Add cream; boil until it coats potatoes. Cover with cheese slices; bake 10 minutes until melted and crusted.
  6. Serve immediately with pickles, salad and crusty bread, as desired.

Equipment

Ovenproof casserole dish; Knife and board; Oven

Notes

  • Keep the flavour: cover the potatoes with just enough water, then let it evaporate until they sizzle again. Test a piece; if still firm, add a little more water and repeat.
  • Cream option: replace some of the double cream with crème fraîche for a lighter-tasting finish. The source does not specify a proportion.
  • Serving: eat immediately, with pickles, salad and crusty bread.
  • Original batch and timing: the recipe serves 2–4 and carries a 50-minute headline. No prep/cook split is supplied, and the bacon rendering, cream reduction and possible extra potato cooking have no separate duration.

Photos

1 photo
TartifletteServingTartiflette ready for the table

Tartiflette

Recipe photos

About this dish

Tartiflette takes its name from tartifla, the Savoyard word for potato. Reblochon gives the dish its distinctive character. The oven-baked preparation became established in the 1980s, drawing on péla, the older mountain dish of potatoes and cheese cooked in a long-handled pan.

Reblochon’s name comes from reblocher, to milk a second time. Tradition tells of farmers around Thônes holding back some milk when a collector checked their cows’ yield to assess the landlord’s dues. Once the collector left, they milked the cows again, turning the rich second milk into cheese. That story belongs to the cheese’s history, long before the modern tartiflette.

Groves cooks the potatoes with the bacon and aromatics in a single casserole. Water softens them, then evaporates completely so the flavour stays in the dish. Cream reduces around the cooked potato before the cheese topping goes into the oven. The small dice makes each spoonful a mixture of potato, bacon and melted Reblochon, with pickles and salad providing a sharp counterpoint.

Recipe and cooking notes adapted from Great British Chefs.