Truffade Auvergnate

Truffade is the Cantal's great potato-and-cheese dish — the mountain cousin of aligot, simpler in execution but equally satisfying, built on sliced potatoes (not mashed) cooked slowly in lard or duck fat until golden, then mixed with thin slices of tomme fraîche de Cantal (the young, unaged curd of Cantal cheese) that melt into long, elastic strings among the potato slices. Where aligot is smooth and puréed, truffade is rustic and textured — you see and feel the individual potato slices, each coated in a film of melted cheese, creating a dish that is part gratin, part galette, part fondue. The technique: peel and slice 1kg of firm potatoes (BF15 or Charlotte) into 5mm rounds. Heat 3 tablespoons of lard (saindoux) or duck fat in a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add the potatoes in an even layer, season with salt and pepper, and cook slowly — 25-30 minutes, turning occasionally with a spatula — until golden and cooked through but not crisp. Lower the heat, scatter 300g of thinly sliced tomme fraîche over the potatoes, and fold gently with the spatula as the cheese melts, creating strings and pockets of molten cheese throughout the potato mass. The truffade is ready when the cheese has melted completely and begun to form a golden crust where it contacts the pan. Serve directly from the skillet, accompanied by a green salad dressed with walnut oil vinaigrette and sliced Cantal saucisse sèche. The name 'truffade' derives from 'truffa,' the Occitan word for potato (not truffle) — a reminder that the potato was the truffle of the poor. In the burons (mountain cheese huts) of the Cantal, truffade was the daily meal of the buronniers who made Salers and Cantal cheese during the summer estive.

• Swiss Rösti (pan-fried potato cake)
• Aligot (puréed potato-cheese)
• Tartiflette (Savoyard potato-Reblochon)
• Spanish tortilla (slow-cooked potato in fat)