Tarte Flambée – Alsatian Bacon & Onion Pizza (Not Pizza)

The hardest thing about this amazing tarte flambée recipe isn’t the prep, or finding some exotic ingredient, it’s actually trying to explain to your guests why it’s not called pizza. I’m reminded of that old saying, “If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and looks like a duck, sometimes it’s a trout.”

That’s right, while this is a pizza almost everywhere else, in certain places on the German/French border, it goes by the totally dessert-sounding name of tarte flambée. Just tell people the name comes from the fact it used to be cooked in a fire, and then trail off.

Once your crust is pre-browned and topped, you have several options for bringing this to a successful, and hopefully crispy conclusion. Since the bottom is already browned, I usually just broil it on high, about 8 inches from the flame, for about 5 minutes, or until the top is looking just right.

The other method would be to pop it in a 500 F. oven, for about 7-10 minutes, or until you’re completely happy. Or, you can actually do both – start in a hot oven, and then give it a minute under the broiler to seal the deal. Either way, I really hope you give this tarte flambée a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 4 tarte flambée:

4 balls prepared pizza dough (about 5 ounces each) Note: Wolfgang Puck pizza dough recipe would would perfectly

12 ounces bacon, sliced

1 large yellow onion, sliced, cooked with salt, until soft, but not caramelized

For the cheese mixture:

1 cup formage blanc

1/4 cup crème fraiche

pinch of nutmeg

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

cayenne to taste