Tartiflette () is a dish from Savoy in the

French Alps The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such as ...

and from

Aosta Valley , Valdostan or Valdotainian it, Valdostano (man) it, Valdostana (woman)french: Valdôtain (man)french: Valdôtaine (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = Official languages , population_blank1 = Italian French ...

. It is made with

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

es,

reblochon Reblochon () is a soft washed-rind and smear-ripened French cheese made in the Alpine region of Haute-Savoie from raw cow's milk. It has its own AOC designation. Reblochon was first produced in the Thônes and Arly valleys, in the Aravis massi ...

cheese,

lardon A lardon, also spelled lardoon, is a small strip or cube of fatty bacon, or pork fat (usually subcutaneous fat), used in a wide variety of cuisines to flavor savory food and salads. In French cuisine, lardons are also used for larding, by thr ...

s and

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onio ...

s. A splash of white wine can be added too. The word ''tartiflette'' is probably derived from the Arpitan word for potato (''tartiflâ'') or from the Savoyard ''tartifles'', a term also found in Provençal and Gallo-Italian. This modern recipe was inspired by a traditional dish called péla: a

gratin Gratin () is a culinary technique in which an ingredient is topped with a browned crust, often using breadcrumbs, grated cheese, egg or butter.Courtine, Robert J. (ed.) (2003) ''The Concise Larousse Gastronomique'' London: Hamlyn The term ma ...

cooked in a long-handled pan called a ''pelagic'' (shovel). Often served as an

après-ski A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North ...

meal, tartiflette conveys an image of Alpine authenticity and conviviality.

History

As with many traditional dishes in the region, the potato is a staple ingredient. Savoy was historically part of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

, and the Savoyards were exposed to potato

tubers Tubers are a type of enlarged structure used as storage organs for nutrients in some plants. They are used for the plant's perennation (survival of the winter or dry months), to provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing s ...

earlier than the French. Tartiflette was first mentioned in a 1705 book, ''Le Cuisinier Royal et Bourgeois'', written by

François Massialot François Massialot (1660, in Limoges – 1733, in Paris) was a French chef who served as ''chef de cuisine'' (''officier de bouche'') to various illustrious personages, including Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, the brother of Louis XIV, and his so ...

and his assistant cook B. Mathieu. In its modern form, tartiflette began to appear on the menus of restaurants in the ski resorts in the 1980s. Its popularity is partly thanks to the promotional effort by ''Le Syndicat Interprofessionnel du Reblochon'' to boost the sales of reblochon, as is confirmed also by

Christian Millau Christian Dubois-Millot, pen name Christian Millau (, 30 December 1928 – 5 August 2017), was a French food critic and author. Born in Paris, he began his career as a journalist in the "interior policy" department of ''Le Monde'' newspaper. In 1 ...

(of the Gault-Millau Guide) in his gastronomic dictionary.

Variations

A common related dish found throughout the region is the ''croziflette''. Its preparation resembles that of the original dish in everything but the use of potatoes, in place of which minuscule squares of locally produced pasta are used. These are known as

crozets de Savoie Crozets de Savoie are small, square-shaped, flat pasta originally made in the Savoie region in southeast France. Crozets were made traditionally at home by housewives using buckwheat or wheat, or sometimes both. This pasta is used mainly to prepar ...

(which are usually made from buckwheat, but sometimes durum), hence the name of this dish, which is a blend of "crozet" and "tartiflette". Another related dish is the ''morbiflette'' prepared with the Morbier cheese in place of the Reblochon.

References

{{Potato dishes Potato dishes French cuisine Cuisine of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes