Péla — The Cast-Iron Potato Dish of Savoie

Ingredients

• 1 kg waxy potatoes, peeled, boiled until just tender, sliced 5 mm thick
• 3 large onions, peeled and thinly sliced
• 50 g butter, or lard
• 1 whole (450 g) Reblochon, halved horizontally, rind on
• To serve
• 1 plate dried Savoyard sausage (saucisson sec), sliced
• 1 basket green salad, dressed with walnut oil vinaigrette

Method

1. 1
   Boil the potatoes whole in well-salted water until just tender throughout — a skewer should meet slight resistance at the centre. Drain, peel while warm, and slice to 5 mm. Set aside.
2. 2
   Melt the butter (or lard) in the péla or a 25–28 cm cast-iron skillet over low heat. Add the sliced onions and cook, stirring occasionally, for a full 30 minutes. This is where the dish lives or dies: the onions must reach a deep, uniform golden colour — almost jammy — with no raw or merely softened portions remaining; anything short of this foundation leaves the finished péla flat and unbalanced.
3. 3
   Heat the oven to 200 °C. Remove the onions from the pan and set aside. Arrange half the potato slices in an even layer across the base of the same cast-iron pan. Spread all of the caramelized onions over the potatoes. Lay one Reblochon half, cut-face down and rind-face up, over the onions. Add the remaining potato slices, then place the second Reblochon half, rind-face up, over the top.
4. 4
   Transfer the pan to the oven and bake for 25–30 minutes. The dish is ready when the Reblochon has melted entirely and is actively bubbling at the edges, and the exposed potato edges in contact with the cast iron have turned crisp and lightly coloured.
5. 5
   Bring the pan directly to the table — no cream, no white wine, nothing added. Serve with the sliced saucisson sec and the green salad dressed in walnut oil vinaigrette alongside.