Potato And Egg Pie With Bacon And Crème Fraîche
In 2018, Food & Wine named this recipe one of our 40 best: In February 1979, Paula Wolfert penned an article about great Alsatian chefs cooking their mothers’ food. Included was André Soltner, then the chef at the legendary Lutèce in Manhattan. Soltner opted to recreate his mother’s outstanding potato pie, which Wolfert said was “a simple thing, yet elegant.” It consisted of a flaky pâte brisée filled with thinly sliced potatoes, bacon, hard-cooked eggs, herbs, and crème fraîche. Wolfert noted how strongly Soltner felt while preparing the tart, with “pleasure and nostalgia plainly visible on his face.” The secret to the flaky pâte brisée is the single turn made with the dough in step 2. This is home cooking at its best, from one of America’s most revered French chefs. Soltner described the food of his native alsace as based on ”very good dry white wines and wonderful regional produce.” This pie makes a simple, elegant, and satisfying weekend lunch paired with a chilled bottle of alsace wine and a green salad. In a pinch, use a store-bought pie crust.