French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [120]
There is, however, a time-honoured version containing a proportion of fresh white cream cheese as well as the cream, and it is perhaps this recipe which has caused the confusion. No doubt it is all largely a matter of taste, and for myself I find that whereas the combination of the mild flavour of white cream cheese with the smoked bacon of Alsace and Lorraine (which much resembles our own at its best) is quite attractive, that of Gruyère cheese with the same smoked bacon tends to be rather coarse and heavy. At any rate, here is a recipe for the plain cream and egg and bacon variety.
For the pastry the ingredients are 4 oz. of plain flour, 2 oz. of butter, 1 egg, salt, a little water. Cut the butter into little pieces and crumble it thoroughly with the sieved flour, adding a good pinch of salt. Break in the egg and mix the dough with your hands. Add enough water (2 to 4 tablespoons) to make the dough soft, but it should still be firm enough to come away clean from the bowl or board. Simply knead it into a ball, wrap it in greaseproof paper and leave it for a minimum of 2 hours. When the time comes to use it, roll it out very thin and line an 8-inch flan tin with it, and with a fork prick the surface.
For the filling cut 6 thin rashers of streaky bacon into inch-wide strips. Cook them in a frying-pan for a minute so that some of the fat runs. Arrange them in circles on the pastry. Have ready pint of double cream mixed with the very well-beaten yolks of 3 eggs plus 1 whole egg, and well-seasoned with freshly-ground pepper and a little salt (taking into account the saltiness of the bacon). Pour this mixture over the bacon and transfer immediately to a pre-heated oven, Gas No. 6, 400 deg. F. Leave it for 20 minutes, then cook for another 10 minutes at a lowered temperature, Gas No. 4, 350 deg. F. By this time the filling should be puffed up almost like a soufflé, and golden brown. Let it rest a minute or two after you take it from the oven, to make it easier to cut, but don’t wait until it has fallen before serving it.
QUICHE AU FROMAGE BLANC
CREAM CHEESE AND BACON TART
For this version, well worth a trial, the filling consists of lb. of fresh, unsalted, or slightly salted, cream cheese, beaten together with pint of thick cream, the yolks of 3 eggs and 1 whole egg, plenty of freshly milled pepper, a little salt, and 6 thin rashers of smoked streaky bacon. The pastry is made, the mixture is poured over the lightly fried bacon, and the quiche is cooked, all as in the foregoing recipe.
To get a smooth mixture it is usually necessary to sieve the cream cheese.
PISSALADIÈRE
PROVENÇAL ONION PIE
The pissaladière is a substantial dish of bread dough spread with onions, anchovies, black olives and sometimes tomatoes, baked in the oven on large heavy baking trays, and sold by the slice in bakers’ shops or straight from the baking trays by street vendors. It is not so common nowadays as it was before the war, when it could be bought hot from the oven in the early morning at every street corner in the old quarters of Marseille and Toulon. Not so long ago, however, having spotted some in a bakery in Avignon, I went in and asked for ‘une tranche de Pissaladière.’ The shopkeeper did not know what I meant. ‘What, then, is that?’ I asked. ‘Ça, Madame, c’est du Pizza Provençal,’ was the surprising reply. Odd how that Neapolitan pizza has captured people’s imaginations, even in Provence, where they have their own traditional version of it, the great difference being that the Provençal variety is made without the top dressing of chewy cheese characteristic of the Neapolitan pizza. In fact, the Provençal one more nearly resembles the traditional Roman pizza, and it is, I suppose, possible that it was introduced by Roman cooks during the reign of the Popes in Avignon.
Truthfully it must be admitted that both the Italian pizza and the Provençal pissaladière lie somewhat heavy upon the stomach, because of the bread dough