Melted cheese
Stringy mozzarella on pizza, molten whole vacherin, the crispy bits left in the pan from a toastie… Melted cheese is comfort food of the highest order. These recipes celebrate the most decadent of ingredients – and they’re probably the best way we know of banishing the January blues
ALWAYS A WINNER
RECIPES AND FOOD STYLING REBECCA WOOLLARD PHOTOGRAPHS ALEX LUCK STYLING OLIVIA WARDLE
1 Possibly the cheesiest, most oniony pie ever made
2 Tartiflette soup with ham crisps, p30
COVER RECIPE
Vacherin pithivier with caramelised onions and bacon
SERVES 8. HANDS-ON TIME 40 MIN, OVEN TIME 30-35 MIN, PLUS CHILLING
MAKE AHEAD
Freeze the unbaked pithivier, then cook from frozen for 40-45 minutes, covering loosely with foil if it starts to become too dark.
KNOWHOW
Vacherin is a soft, washedrind cow’s milk cheese made in the Jura mountains of France and Switzerland. It’s available only from September to March, wrapped in spruce, which gives the rind a resinous flavour. It’s available from good cheesemongers and some supermarkets but if you can’t find it, go for a Tunworth (from Hampshire) or a camembert.
A pithivier is a French puff pastry pie. The best-known version, galette des rois, is sweet, but pithiviers can be savoury, too.
FOOD TEAM’S TIPS
You’ll have pastry left over, but press the offcuts lightly on top of each other (don’t ball them up) and you can roll out the pastry to make cheese straws.