Flammekueche or Tarte Flambe (the former is the Alsatian name, the latter, the French) is a very typical - and delicious - Alsatian appetizer. It's very much like a pizza, but lighter and more delicate. It's usually made on a puff-pastry dough, though some recipes allow for the use of bread-dough. It's a little bit more complicated than pizza to make, but it was such a hit at my dinner party that I'll probably make it again.

I found several recipes for this dish, both in cookbooks and online. The one I made came from the Regional French Cuisines cookbook. It called for making your own puff pastry, but I decided to save myself the trouble and buy it frozen from the supermarket. This turned out to be a good idea, as the dough was just perfect.

One warning is that the flammekueche is very light, specially if you use a puff-pastry dough, this means that you shouldn't count on people getting very filled with it. This recipe is for one pie that will serve four people, but you may want to double it and make two fallmekueches. It's that good.

One last note, the name flammekueche or tarte flambe comes from a time when the pie was baked in a fire oven and was surrounded by flames.

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Flammekueche

Ingredients

1 box of puff pastry

Frommage Blanc (see below)

Olive oil

1/4 lb. bacon

1 small yellow or white onion, thinly sliced.

Cornmeal

1 egg

1 tbsp. all-purpose flour

1/3 cup Grated gruyere cheese

For the Fromage Blanc:

3/4 cup ricotta chese

3 tbsp. plain yogurt

pinch of salt.

Instructions

Make the Fromage Blanc by blending the ricotta cheese, the yogurt and the salt for 30 seconds in a blender. Put into a covered bowl and chill for at least 12 hours.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Dust a pizza stone or a heavy baking sheet with the cornmeal.

Whisk together the Fromage Blanc, egg and 1 tablespoon of flour.

Fry bacon in olive oil until done. Remove bacon from pan, cool a little bit, and break into small pieces. Add onion slices to remaining oil and fry until soft.

Lay the puff pastry on pizza stone or baking sheet. Spread Fromage Blanc mixture to within a 3/4 inch from the edge. Top with onion slices, bacon pieces and grated cheese. Brush the edge of the dough with water.

Bake in 425 degree oven until golden brown (15 to 20 minutes). Serve hot.

Adapted from Regional French Cuisines