Tarte flambée

What is this oddity doing here? Well, it is not that odd really; only the name is strange. Don’t be fooled: it is not a typo either. This is not a tart. At least, not the kind you know from other recipes, made with pastry containing a ton of butter. Tarte flambée is something like a pizza with a cream sauce.

But it is not quite pizza either, because there is no yeast. The base is crisp and very thin, with an exceptionally simple yet particularly tasty sauce. If you like pizza with cream sauce, you will definitely enjoy this. Perfect for a quick supper. Highly recommended.

At a glance:

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Baking time: 18 minutes

Baking temperature: 250 degrees Celsius

Serves: 2 people (you get two fairly large flatbreads, but for lunch or a proper supper, allow one per person; as a snack, they will easily serve 4 – 6 people)

How many calories: as many as the distance from here to Alsace

Ingredients for tarte flambée:

• 200 grams of wheat flour
• 125 ml of water
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• a pinch of salt
• 2 fairly large onions
• 200 grams of smoked bacon
• 200 grams of 18% sour cream (the kind used in soup, so one small tub)
• a pinch of black pepper

Recipe for a dish from Alsace:

I put the flour in a bowl and added a pinch of salt and the olive oil. I poured in the water and mixed with a spoon. Then I started kneading by hand. Once the ingredients had come together, I took the mixture out of the bowl and kneaded it into a soft, elastic dough. It should not be sticky.

I cut the finished dough into two pieces and rolled two fairly large flatbreads from each piece. They should be very thin. I transferred them to baking trays greased with olive oil (really just wiped with it).

I diced the onions and bacon and put them in a bowl. I added the sour cream and a little ground black pepper and mixed thoroughly.

I preheated the oven to 250 degrees and, once it was hot, spread half of the prepared onion and bacon flambée sauce over each flatbread. I put them straight into the oven and baked them for about 18 minutes. The base must be crisp and the edges lightly browned. Enjoy!