Tartiflette with reblochon: the authentic Savoyard recipe

“A tartiflette is three things: good potatoes, good white wine and, above all, a real reblochon. The rest is patience.”

What is a tartiflette?

Tartiflette is a gratin of potatoes, onions, lardons and melted reblochon. A generous winter dish, golden on top and melting inside. It smells of the farm and the wood fire, and it fills up a whole table.

So much for the description. The history is more surprising. It is tempting to imagine this gratin crossing the centuries, carried down from the mountain pastures. Not so. The traditional tartiflette recipe as we know it appeared in the 1980s, popularised in a drive to promote reblochon at a time when stocks were piling up. The ancestral dish that inspired it has another name: péla, a pan of potatoes with cheese cooked in the Aravis valley. The word itself comes from tartifla, the potato in Savoyard dialect.

This history changes one essential thing: the dish has no ancient dogma. It has one star ingredient, reblochon. Everything else is there to show it off.

Ingredients for 4 people

Preparation: 20 min — Cooking: 45 min. The quantities are generous: we are here to feed people, not to impress them.

Waxy potatoes, and a reblochon fermier.

• 1 kg waxy potatoes (Charlotte, Amandine, Roseval, Belle de Fontenay)
• 1 reblochon fermier de Savoie AOP, about 450 to 500 g, raw milk
• 200 g smoked lardons, or lightly salted pork belly cut into batons
• 2 large yellow onions (about 200 g)
• 10 cl dry white wine from Savoie (Apremont, Chignin, Roussette)
• 40 g butter
• Freshly ground pepper, a pinch of nutmeg
• Salt, sparingly: the lardons and reblochon are already salty

Optional:

• 1 garlic clove to rub the dish
• 2 tablespoons of crème fraîche, for a softer texture (this is not the Savoyard recipe)

Quantities by number of guests

Guests	Potatoes	Reblochon	Lardons	Onions	White wine
2	500 g	½ (250 g)	100 g	1	5 cl
4	1 kg	1 whole (500 g)	200 g	2	10 cl
6	1.5 kg	1 ½	300 g	3	15 cl
8	2 kg	2 whole	400 g	4	20 cl

Which potato should you choose?

This is not a side issue: it decides how well the dish holds together. Choose a waxy potato. It stands up to pan-frying, keeps its shape in cubes and absorbs the cheese without turning to mash. The safe bets: Charlotte, Amandine, Roseval and, for purists, Belle de Fontenay.

Avoid Bintje and floury varieties. They collapse, soak up the fat and make a heavy gratin. On the bag, look for “waxy” or “salad potato”.

Which cheese for a tartiflette?

This is the heart of the matter. The cheese for tartiflette is reblochon. Not a cousin, not a substitute.

The real thing, the one that turns a gratin into a memory, is a reblochon fermier de Savoie AOP. The specification is clear: raw whole cow's milk, an area limited to Haute-Savoie and the Val d'Arly, Abondance, Montbéliarde and Tarine breeds, minimum maturing of fifteen days. It comes in two versions:

• Fermier (green disc): made on the farm, twice a day, just after milking. Richer taste, more melting texture, and the flavour of a single farm, which varies from one season to the next. This is the one you need here.
• Laitier (red disc): made in a dairy from the milk of several farms. Milder, more consistent.

Raw milk brings a depth that pasteurisation softens: a hint of hazelnut, a touch of cream, a cellar note. Choose a ripe reblochon: a finely bloomy rind, slightly orange, a supple feel under the finger, a frank smell without bitterness. A reblochon that smells too much of ammonia is a tired reblochon.

Our reblochon fermier is selected and matured for exactly this, and our selection of cheeses from Savoie brings together its mountain neighbours.

The recipe step by step

1. Peel and cut the potatoes

Peel the potatoes and cut them into large cubes of 1.5 to 2 cm. The bigger the pieces, the better they hold. Rinse them and pat them dry carefully: a wet potato does not fry, it boils.

Peel with a peeler, then cut into large pieces.

Even cubes, and the reblochon waiting its turn.

2. Pan-fry the potatoes

Melt 20 g of butter in a large sauté pan. Add the potatoes, salt very lightly, cover and cook for 15 to 20 minutes over a medium heat, stirring from time to time. They should be tender all the way through and lightly golden, without falling apart. Test with the tip of a knife.

Pan-frying rather than boiling is what gives flavour and avoids a watery tartiflette.

3. Soften the onions in white wine

Meanwhile, slice the onions finely.

Finely sliced onions: they should melt, not crunch.

Sweat them in 20 g of butter over a low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, until translucent and soft, barely golden. Then pour in the white wine and reduce until almost dry, 3 to 4 minutes. This is where the depth of the dish is decided.

The white wine deglazes the onions and flavours the whole dish.

4. Fry the lardons

In a frying pan, without any fat, fry the lardons for 5 minutes until golden. Do not let them crisp too far: bitterness comes quickly. Drain them on kitchen paper.

In a dry pan: the lardons release their own fat.

5. Assemble the dish

Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Rub the gratin dish with half a garlic clove if you like. Mix the onions with the potatoes, add pepper and nutmeg, then pour everything into the dish.

Potatoes and onions in the dish.

Scatter the lardons over the top.

Golden lardons, spread over the whole surface.

6. Add the reblochon

Cut the reblochon in half horizontally, like opening a book. Not into cubes. Lay the two halves on the dish, rind side up: the cheese melts down into the potatoes and the rind protects everything. One last grind of pepper.

Two halves of reblochon, rind side up. That is the rule.

7. Bake

Bake on the middle shelf for 20 to 25 minutes, until the reblochon has completely melted, the rind is amber and it is bubbling at the edges. For a more pronounced crust, finish with 3 minutes under the grill.

Into the oven, 200 °C, 25 minutes.

Leave to rest for 5 to 10 minutes out of the oven before serving. The cheese settles, the juices spread, and the dish holds on the spoon instead of running.

Melted reblochon, coated potatoes, golden lardons. Serve straight away.

Cooking time and oven settings

• Oven preheated to 190 °C, fan (or 200 °C conventional), shelf in the middle.
• 20 to 25 minutes of cooking, until the cheese is bubbling over the whole surface and sinks back slightly.
• 3 minutes under the grill at the end if you want a more amber crust.
• 5 to 10 minutes' rest before serving.

Too high in the oven, the cheese browns before the centre is hot. Too low, it dries out.

A word of caution. Reblochon is a raw milk cheese. The French Ministry of Agriculture points out the precautions for vulnerable people: pregnant women, young children, elderly or immunocompromised people. Baking in the oven until the cheese is piping hot and melted right through greatly reduces the risk associated with raw milk; if in doubt, ask your doctor or midwife for advice. Check that everything is bubbling, not just the surface.

Mistakes to avoid

1. Floury potatoes. Bintje and the like turn into a greasy mush. Waxy, always.
2. Potatoes boiled and then waterlogged. Pan-fry them: they keep their shape and gain flavour.
3. Burnt lardons. Too hot, too long: bitterness takes over the whole dish.
4. Too much salt. Lardons, reblochon, rind. Keep salt to a minimum.
5. Reblochon cut into cubes. It disappears. Two halves, rind side up.
6. An oven that is too hot. At 230 °C, the crust blackens while the centre stays cold.
7. A dish that is too small. The cheese rises, overflows and burns on the oven floor.

And the most common mistake: serving too soon. Those minutes of rest change the texture. The tartiflette becomes coated, unified, generous. Straight out of the oven, it is runny and rushed.

Variations

Cream or no cream?

The Savoyard recipe contains none: reblochon fermier is rich and melting enough to coat everything on its own. If you want a very creamy version, 2 tablespoons of crème fraîche over the potatoes before the cheese. No more.

Croziflette

The potatoes are replaced with crozets de Savoie, those little squares of buckwheat and wheat pasta. Cooked in stock, mixed with the onions and lardons, covered with reblochon. Less pre-cooking, more bite.

Vegetarian version

Replace the lardons with button mushrooms or chanterelles sautéed in a dry pan until well browned. A pinch of smoked paprika brings back the smoky note.

The raclette grill version

Keep the potatoes, onions and lardons, and change the final step: everyone melts their own portion of cheese onto their plate. More convivial for large tables. Our raclette and fondue selection has everything you need. For another Savoyard dish of melted cheese, even simpler, try berthoud: Abondance melted in the oven with garlic and a splash of white wine.

What to serve with tartiflette

The dish is rich. The table around it should be light and fresh.

• A crisp salad. Lamb's lettuce, chicory or escarole, with a mustard and walnut vinaigrette. The bitterness wakes up the palate.
• Fine charcuterie. Cured ham and dry sausage: our artisan charcuterie pairs effortlessly. Or some Savoie diots.
• Gherkins and pickles. The acidity cuts through the fat.
• Country bread. To mop up the bottom of the dish. It is the best part.
• A dry white from Savoie. The same as in the recipe: Apremont, Chignin-Bergeron, Roussette. A light red such as a Mondeuse also works.
• A very simple dessert. Orange salad, apple compote, fromage blanc.

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