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THE COUNTRY COOKING OF FRANCE by Anne Willan photography by France Ruffenach Chronicle Books September 2007 $50.00/hardcover Full-color photographs throughout ISBN: 081-1-846-466 Back to book information Printer-friendly page

If you can't afford truffles, you indulge in Truffade, say the inhabitants of the Auvergne, notoriously among the coldest and most rugged areas of France. Often served with sausage, Truffade is a potato cake flavored with bacon and laden with cheese, a buttress against the worst weather. Nippy Cantal is the local hard cheese, and Gruyere may be substituted.

5 ounce (140 g) piece of lean bacon, cut into lardons cut from a piece of slab bacon
2 tablespoon (30 g) lard of vegetable oil
2 pounds (900 g) baking potatoes, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper
8 ounces (100 g) Cantal or Gruyere cheese, diced or cut into thin, narrow strips
10 inch (25 cm) nonstick frying pan

Heat the bacon lardons in a 10 inch (25 cm) frying pan over medium heat until the fat runs, 2 to 3 minutes. Do not let them brown. Remove them with a draining spoon and set aside.

Melt the lard in the pan, add the potatoes, and sprinkle them with pepper. The bacon may contribute enough salt. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the lardons and continue to cook, uncovered, over a low heat, tossing or stirring often, until the potatoes are tender and some are browned, 20 to 25 minutes. Don't worry if some of them are crushed, as they will help hold the mixture in a cake.

Stir in the cheese, taste, and adjust the seasoning. Press down on the potatoes to level them in the pan. Turn the heat to high and let them cook without stirring until the bottom is brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Press on the cake occasionally to hold it together. When done, it should be brown around the edges and starting to pull from the sides of the pan. Take the pan off the heat, run a knife around the edge to loosen the cake, and turn in out onto a warmed platter. Serve hot.

* (from page 371) Lardons cut from a piece of a slab of bacon, or sometimes from other fatty pork cuts, add meaty depth of flavor at low cost. To cut lardons, trim any rind from the bacon and cut into slices 3/8-inch (1 cm) thick. Stack the slices and cut crosswise into short strips.