It’s cold outside. New year’s resolutions are probably wearing thin. This is no time for dieting – it’s time for comfort, eating, and comfort eating. And wine. This dish has it all.
Some of the MadDogSki team came across this delicious Croute Savoyarde on a recent trip to the resort of Les Contamines, next door to Chamonix, and we were sold. It’s a kind of baked cheese and ham sandwich, soaked in wine and with cheese sauce and cheese on top – those crazy Savoyarde folk sure know how to use up a bit of stale baguette with style (croute means crust). Go on, you know you want to.
Croute Savoyarde recipe
Ingredients
- A baguette or white bread, preferably a little stale
- A clove of garlic
- A large slosh of white wine
- Some lardons or chopped up raw bacon
- Some slices of ham
- Mushrooms
- Fancy French cheeses – reblochon, abundance and/or beaufort
- OR emmental and gruyere
- Single cream or creme fraiche
Method
- Sprinkle some lardons or a few slices of chopped up bacon into the bottom of an overproof dish
- Cut your bread into thick slices and lay them on top of the bacon. If you like garlic, rub a raw clove onto the slices. If your bread isn’t stale, grill it a little until it’s crispy but not brown.
- Slosh your wine over the slices and let it soak in.
- Roughly tear up a few slices of ham and lay them on top of the bread.
- If you like mushrooms, slice them up and lay them on top of the ham.
- If you have a good local cheese shop, go crazy and lay slices of Reblochon, Abundance and Beaufort cheese over the pile of bread and all. If you don’t have a fine cheese shop nearby, make do with grated emmental and gruyere instead.
- Pour a whole load of single cream over the whole thing and, if your cheese is in slices, add a little grated cheese over the top for good measure.
- Bake at gas mark 4 for 20 minutes or until the whole thing is melted and bubbling.
- Eat with a green salad, some cornichons or pickled gherkins and a glass of white wine.
