Potato and Gruyere Galette

It seems like the summer is going incredibly fast.  It’s almost September!  The pool is closed for the season, and the leaves are already starting to fall off the trees.  And fortunately, the busy season at work is almost over.  I know that I haven’t posted for a while, but I truthfully haven’t been doing anything exciting with my CSA veggies (or with any food, for that matter).  Oh, I’ve been doing a lot of grilling, I’ve made some tasty pasta, but nothing fun – I’ve just been cooking to eat.

Tonight, I wanted to cook for the enjoyment of cooking (as well as the eating part – I like that, too!).  I also wanted to use some of my CSA ingredients  in a way that isn’t typical weeknight cooking for me.

Enter the galette!  I’m still totally in love with the Zucchini and Ricotta Galette that I made this summer, but I didn’t want to eat zucchini again.  So, I set out to find another galette recipe.  As it turns out, I found a ton!  Savory and sweet options that all sounded fantastic!  So, I took some ideas from different recipes and made a Potato and Gruyere Galette that was so good, I literally stopped eating it at one point and said out loud, “Darn, that is good!”.  (I didn’t say darn, but I’m self-editing.)  Good thing my cats already think I’m crazy!

I used potatoes and onions from my CSA this week, fresh thyme from my herb garden, and served myself a big ol’ wedge with a side of CSA cherry tomatoes.  Glorious!

I used the dough recipe from Smitten Kitchen (same recipe I used for the Zucchini and Ricotta Galette), but here’s the recipe for the filling:

• Olive oil
• 1 medium red onion, 1 medium white onion – thinly sliced
• 2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme, chopped
• salt
• black pepper
• about a half cup (maybe a little more) Gruyere cheese, grated
• 5 red potatoes, unpeeled, cut into thin slices (about 1/4 inch slices)
• 1 egg

I sauted the onions with a bit of olive oil until they were soft and slightly translucent (8-10 minutes). I added a pinch of salt, some pepper and the fresh thyme and transferred the onions to a bowl to cool.

Once the onions were cool, I mixed the onions, cheese and potatoes together in a large bowl.

I took the galette dough out of the fridge and rolled it out until it was a circle about 12 inches in diameter.  I poured the potato/cheese/onion filling in the middle of the dough and crimped the edges up around it.  I drizzled a little olive oil over the filling and brushed the edges of the dough with the beaten egg to give it that golden brown color.

I popped it in the oven (oops, I preheated the oven to 400 degrees) for about 40 minutes.  The dough was golden and beautiful, and the potatoes were just a little bit soft when I poked them.

I put the galette on a cooling rack for about 8 minutes ( I was going to wait 10, but it smelled REALLY good) before slicing and eating it.  Yummy!

It tastes sort of like a really good baked potato, but with a flaky pastry crust.  Awesome.

Zucchini and Ricotta Galette

Please raise your hand if you have heard of, cooked or eaten a galette.  If your hand is up, congratulations!  Your culinary education is much better than mine.  (And you may put your hands down – thanks for playing!)

Until a few days ago, I had never heard of a galette, so I had no idea what I had been missing.  I was browsing In Her Chuck’s CSA link party for the week (thanks again – I love checking out all the links!), clicked on a couple things, and eventually came to a link for this recipe from Smitten Kitchen for Zucchini and Ricotta Galette. 

A galette can be described as a cross between a free form tart and a pizza.  Apparently, they can be sweet or savory.  And , I now know, they are also delicious.

Now, I won’t tell you it’s a super easy recipe.  It’s not super difficult either, but it does have a lot of steps.  First you make the pastry dough, then refrigerate the dough.  Then  prep the zucchini, then mix the cheese filling, then roll out the dough, then put it all together – and THEN, you have to smell it cooking for 30 – 40 minutes before you can cut a big piece and eat it!

But the end result is so very worth it.

I took one bite of this and fell in love with the galette.  Yes, I have a new favorite recipe (again – I appear to have recipe committment issues).  The pastry dough is light and flaky, and the cheese filling was creamy and delicious.  I used both green and yellow zucchini both because that’s what I got in my CSA box, and because it’s pretty!

Hmmm… the rest of the galette is still sitting in the kitchen…I think I may go back for a second helping!