Emergency meals – Tarte Flambée / White Pizza

I was chatting with a friend the other day when he asked what’s for dinner. So I told him that we’re gonna put some meat on the grill and have a lil barbecue. He then asked what we were celebrating. Celebrating?? It was Wedenesday. Good enough reason for me….Haha! I was confused and then I realised what he meant. In Singapore, we don’t BBQ unless there was an occasion. I don’t know why. Maybe because it’s a hassle to get a fire started. But here in Switzerland, warm sunny days are not all year round. Couple that with the ease of a gas grill, we have BBQs every chance we get.

But cost of living is high in Switzerland. More accurately, it’s meat that will bankrupt you. Especially when you’re feeding 2 baby carnivores (my kids no longer eat vegetables. ARGH!).  You’d think after all these years I’d be pretty good at estimating how much meat to buy for the week. Wrong! I still tend to buy way too little meat. Especially during BBQ season. Towards the end of the week, I usually find myself getting creative with whatever is left in the fridge.

There are a few things I ALWAY have in my fridge.

1. Chili
2. Kimchi
3. Crème fraîche
4. Bacon
5. Eggs

No, I can’t combine all 5 of those ingredients. Kimchi and Crème fraîche? Hmmm…. But Crème fraîche and bacon on the other hand are a match made in heaven. A fat, greasy, mouth-watering match on a thin pizza crust baked to a crispy perfection. I give you Tarte flambée aka White Pizza.

Tarte flambées were originally made to test the temperature of wood-fired ovens. If it cooked in 1-2 mins, the oven was ready. I couldn’t help wonder what happened to all those Tartes that “failed” the test.

The recipe is for 2 pies. That gives you an idea of how much we eat in this household. Switch the Crème fraîche for tomato sauce and the Sbrinz for Mozzarella and you got yourself a tasty pizza.

 

 

Tarte flambées

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

Pizza Dough

• 150g brown flour
• 150g all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp dried yeast
• 180ml warm water
• 1 Tbsp olive oil

Topping

• 4 Tbsp Crème fraîche
• 2-3 Tbsp grated cheese ( I use Sbrinz but you can use any kind you like)
• 1 large red onion, sliced thinly
• ½ – 1 cup diced bacon (depending on how much you like bacon)

DIRECTIONS

Pizza dough

• In your stand mixer’s mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar and dried yeast.
• Drizzle in the warm water and olive oil and stir by hand, using the dough hook attachment, until the ingredients more or less come together.
• Attach the dough hook to your mixer and start to knead the dough on low until a ball forms. I have my Kenwood Chef on setting 1.
• Once a ball is formed, continue to knead for 8 minutes.
• When done kneading. remove the dough hook and divide the dough into 2. Roll them each into a ball and leave to rise, covered in a damp cloth, for about 20 minutes

Assembling the Tarte

• Pre-heat oven to 250°C / 480°F, fan assisted. If your oven has a pizza setting, go ahead and use that.
• Roll out each ball of dough as thin as you can and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
• Spread 2 Tbsp of Crème fraîche evenly onto each pizza base, sprinkle grated cheese and scatter onion and diced bacon.
• Place pizza on bottom rack of oven and bake for 8 minutes until it resembles Beyoncé; brown and beautiful.

Variations

Spinach and Bacon Pizza

Tuna Pizza