Recipe: Julia Busuttil Nishimura’s Potato and Three-Cheese Galette Is Comfort in Every Slice

I love to make a galette for lunch, especially if I have a friend coming over or I feel like going to that extra effort. The pastry can be made in advance, the shallots too, which just leaves a little assembly and cooking. This galette is filled with golden shallots and thinly sliced potatoes enveloped in crème fraîche, gruyere, thyme and nutmeg. It’s comforting and a little indulgent.

Potato and three-cheese galette by Julia Busuttil Nishimura

Serves 6–8

Ingredients

1 egg, beaten, for eggwash
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Parmigiano Reggiano, to serve

Flaky pastry
250g (1⅔ cups) plain flour
Pinch of salt
125g cold unsalted butter, diced
2 tsp white vinegar
80–100ml iced water

Potato and cheese filling
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
6 shallots, halved and thinly sliced
Salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 garlic cloves, crushed with the side of a knife
6 thyme sprigs, leaves picked, plus extra to serve
700g Nicola potatoes, sliced 1mm thick
125g crème fraîche
100g gruyere, coarsely grated
A few gratings of fresh nutmeg
80g chevre, crumbled

Method

For the pastry, mix the flour and a good pinch of salt together in a large bowl. With your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour; don’t overwork the butter to small pieces, some larger, flat pieces of butter are helpful to create the flakiness.

Drizzle in the vinegar and enough of the iced water to just bring the dough together (you might not need all of it). It will still be shaggy, but should hold together when pressed and not be dry or floury. Flatten into a thick disc about 10–12cm in diameter, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to rest.

The key to making this pastry is to ensure the butter and water are very cold. Keeping everything cold ensures the butter stays as separate layers within the dough for a light and flaky pastry.

Preheat the oven to 190°C fan-forced (210°C conventional) and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Meanwhile, for the filling, heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat, add the shallot with a good pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.

Add the garlic and half the thyme and cook for a further 5 minutes or until the shallot is golden. Remove from the heat and cool.

Combine the potatoes in a bowl with the crème fraîche, gruyere, nutmeg and remaining thyme. Season well with salt and pepper and use your hands to ensure the potatoes are well coated.

(Feel free to play around with the cheeses in this tart – comté instead of gruyere or pecorino instead of Parmigiano are great substitutes. For a bigger flavour, you could also swap the chevre with some stilton.)

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a large circle around 3mm thick, then drape the pastry over the prepared tray. Spread the shallot mixture onto the base of the pastry, leaving a 4–5cm edge. Dot with the chevre, then arrange the potato mixture onto the base, still leaving the space around the edge. Drizzle liberally with olive oil, about 2 tsp.

Fold the overhanging pastry towards the centre of the tart, pinching the joins as you go to seal in the filling and form a galette (you only want to fold the edges over; the majority of the potato should still be exposed).

Whisk the egg with 1tsp of water in a small bowl, then brush the eggwash over the pastry’s edge. Bake for 40–50 minutes or until the potatoes are golden and cooked through and the pastry is deep golden.

Allow to cool then top with extra thyme leaves and grate over plenty of lemon zest and Parmigiano Reggiano to serve.

This is an edited extract from the Broadsheet cookbook The New Classics , which features 80 all-new recipes by Melbourne’s best restaurants. Published by Plum, the book is available for $54.99 at shop.broadsheet.com.au.