Today For Lunch: Tartiflette. Because, Winter.
When food is heavy for heavy food's sake, it needs to be strategic. It needs to be prepared in February, when it hasn't warmed up for like, six weeks and the big dirty snowbanks are given the ultimatum to pay rent or get out. And it obviously should involve bacon, because it's Wednesday.
Tartiflette is a French dish whose best attribute, as with so much of its breathren, is simplicity. It's a big hunk of soft, nutty and pungent washed-rind cheese baked over a mix of sliced potatoes and thick chunks of bacon, or lardons. This is the kind of dish you make because you bought an awesome piece of cheese and want to highlight its awesomeness for all the potatoes and bacon and the rest of the world to see. A reputable cheese shop should carry Raclette or Savoyarde which are similar to Robluchon, traditionally used in the Alps but banned in the U.S. (I'm making a scary cheese noise).
Best of all, it reheats...well, okay, there's a catch. If you want to bring leftovers for lunch, your office has to have a toaster oven, which ceramic bowls are fine in. Don't microwave your beautiful cheese, that would negate all the efforts of sourcing it and plopping it center stage on top of bacon and potatoes. Seriously, that's the entire dish, that, wine, onions and butter. Make up your own proportions. Big layer of potatoes, light huge blob of cheese, medium bacon. Thinner layer of potatoes, humongous blob of cheese, very slightly less bacon. You know, warm up a little.
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