Tartiflette savoyarde traditionelle facile

Potatoes with bacon, onions and topped with melted cheese. What's not to like?

Auchan supermarket sold Tartiflette cheeses. They were a lot less expensive than the Reblochon cheeses. 

It is an easy recipe. I cooked the potatoes on their skin and cooled them down in cold water.

Bacon went in the pan with a little oil until browned. Then the onions went in the same pan to get soft. A little salt helps.

Mix wine with creme fraiche and seasoning

Ingredients:

450 g cooked potatoes

1 red onion, 1 large shallot

1 tbsp oil

100 g bacon

40 ml white wine

60 g creme fraiche

Salt and pepper, smoked paprika, dried thyme

180 g Tartiflette cheese or Reblochon

Bake at 180 C for 40 min.

Pasta Lumaconi with Salsiccia, Peas and Mortadella

Lumaconi means Snail Shell.

My BFF brought 2 Italian cooking magazines back from Sicily for me. The smaller issue had some nice recipes I already cooked. Now I finally took a closer look at the second one.

Recipe for 8 - no way. I made it for 2 and had some calculations to do before I went grocery shopping. The recipe was called FACILE as in easy. It was easy- but 3 pots, 1 pan and an ovenproof dish was a lot to clean later. 

For this dish to be easy, you will need some planning ahead. 

Step one: boil some eggs

Step two: cook the tomato and pea sauce

Step three: cook a Bechamel sauce

Step four: skin the salsiccia, chop it and the Mortadella

Step five: chop onions and garlic and parsley

Step six: cook the pasta - it will take 14 min

Step seven: preheat the oven 200 C fan

Ingredients for 2:

140 g Lumaconi pasta

2 boiled eggs

1 yellow onion, 2 garlic cloves, 2 tbsp parsley

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp flour, 100 ml milk, 50 ml white wine, nutmeg, salt, white pepper

1 can 400 g chopped tomatoes

Salt, pepper, Italian herbs

200 g defrosted peas

1 Burrata, 35 g Grana Padano

Half of the peas are for the tomato sauce. The other half goes in with the sausages. The tomato sauce should bubble 25 minutes.

While it cooks, make the Bechamel sauce first. It can keep on the side for later than.

In 1 tbsp oil brown the salsiccia first, then add the Mortadella and the peas. The chopped eggs go in last. Don't forget to season and add parsley.

Drain the pasta.

Now start building the dish. Some tomato sauce on the bottom first. Try to stuff a bit of sausage mix in the shells. Or just dump the mix on top. More tomato sauce. Rip the Burrata and place it on top. Bechamel next and grated Grana Padano.

Bake for 10 min.

One Pot Chicken and Chorizo Rice

That was the basic recipe. Just a bit of onion and garlic. Where are the veggies and herbs?

I took that only as an idea and bulked out the recipe with bell pepper and carrot and lots of hard mediteranian herbs from my balcony. Unseasoned chicken meat is never going in a pan or pot in my household. Basic seasoning is not an artform, but is needed to create a well balanced seasoned dish.

The whole preparation did not take a mong time. When the steps in the pan were done, bring it up to a boil, reduce the heat and get a lid on.

Recipe for 3:

350 g chicken inner breast filet

Chicken seasoning

120 g hot chorizo

2 tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, 2 green onions, 5 garlic cloves

1 red bell pepper

1 carrot

4 tbsp tomato paste

450 ml veg stock

180 g longgrain rice

Smoked salt, pepper

2 tsp each smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder

Fresh rosemary, sage,thyme, oregano, majoram,ysop

40 g grated mozzarella

Chop onions and veggies and cut the chicken breast in bite size chunks, skin the chorizo and do the same.

In the pan that has a lid, put in olive oil and gest it on medium high. Add onions, carrot, chorizo and garlic and sauté that for 5 min. Take out some of the fat with a kitchen paper. 

Add the seasoned chicken and slightly brown it. Now in with the tomato paste and cook that 2 min. Next bell pepper and washed rice. Give that a good stir to coat in the oils. Season with salt and pepper and add the other seasonings.

Add warm stock and the fresh herbs. Don't cut them up, just toss them in and take them out later. Bring to a boil, cover with a lid and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 15 min. Taste if the rice is done. Sprinkle Mozzarella on top, close the lid again and let it melt.

Panzanella au Thon

Call it Tomato Bread Salad with Tuna Fish.

A bowl of homegrown tomatoes, a quarter loaf of home baked high protein bread and a can of fish. 

Together with some tasty bits like olives, onions and capers gets a salad that is wonderful to enjoy in this heat.

I found this recipe in one of my French Gourmand magazines. The nice thing here is that the bread is toasted in olive oil in a pan before it gets to soak in the tomato juices and dressing.

I sliced the red onion very fine and poured boiling water over them and let the onions sit for 2 min. Drained and then cooled under running water. When you have salad for the next day, the onions wont ruin the salad then.

Ingredients:

3 thicker slices of bread or baguette

Olive oil

250 g tomatoes, quartered

1 red onion, sliced

1 can tuna fish, drained

4 tbsp sliced black olives

2 tbsp chopped capers

White balsamic vinegar, olive oil, smoked salt, pepper

Air Fryer Gnocchi Snack

There are so many food ideas that work in an air fryer. This time: potato gnocchi

I had an open package with just 120 g uncooked gnocchi sitting in my fridge. A second helping of cooked gnocchi with pesto was not on my wishlist for today.

Baking them in a pan was one choice, but that would mean an other dirty pan. My baking paper cover in the air fryer helps with keeping it clean. Chucking the gnocchi with a lot of seasoning and a tiny amount of olive oil in the basket was a great idea.

It took 12 min, 2 basket shakings in between, and the gnocchi were done. I mixed some curd with an Oriental paste and a bit Agave syrup as a dip.

Seasoning:

Smoked paprika, Tuscany seasoning blend, pepper and a little French fries seasoning

Filet Mignon de Porc au Melon et au Chorizo

Sunday lunch.

The combination between hot and spicy and sweet is awesome. It took only 20 minutes from start to finish. 

Start with the pork. Season it with salt and pepper and heat up butter and oil and brown it all around on medium high heat.

Add meat fond and some herbes d'Provence and cover with a lid, reduce the heat and cook for 15 min. Cut in 4 tranches. Add creme fraiche and finish the sauce.

Cut the melon open and take the seeds out. Two tranches are enough per person.

The very hot chorizo in 8 slices, put it in a pan on a little oil. Brown the pieces in a little oil and let the red fat out. When they are done, get them out of the pan, pour the maple syrup in and drop the melon pieces in.

Season the melon with salt and pepper. It will need only a couple of minutes on medium heat.

Ingredients for 1:

180 g pork filet

40 g hot Chorizo

200 g orange colored melon

2 tbsp maple syrup

1 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp oil

100 ml meat stock

30 g creme fraiche

Salt, pepper, herbes d'Provence

I served it with bread.

Gnocchi with Carrotgreens Pesto and caramelized Onions

Keep it vegetarian was the motto for today.

The only thing that took a good amount of time were the caramelized onions. They need about 30 minutes in total. But when they are done and dusted, the other ingredients are easy.

I bought the gnocchi, I just needed a small amount. They were more or less freshly made and just needed to take a plunsh in boiling water, then heat turned off and stayed in 3 min.

Soft and pillowy gnocchi, what's not to like?

The pesto made from the green carrot tops was in the fridge, ready to go. Two teaspoons full of pesto were enough to coat the gnocchi.

Onions on top and a little grated Parmesan and lunch was done.