This scrumptious tart is from the Alsace region of France, which borders Germany.  It is known as Tarte Flambée or Tarte á la Flamme in French, or Flammekeuche in the Alsatian language, and Flammkuchen in German.

What you may need…  You may or may not need the heavy cream, Greek yogurt and cottage cheese, depending what you use as a substitute for fromage blanc (white cheese).  Or you may make your own fromage blanc.  You also do not need to put wine in it.  If you don’t want to cook with the wine, you may want to drink it.  The large, unidentifiable lump in the center of the photo is the dough.  That you will definitely need (not knead)!

I use a loaf of frozen bread dough, but feel free to make homemade dough, if you prefer.  For this recipe, the frozen bread dough works just fine.  Let it rise and roll it out, very thin, and in the shape of a rectangle.

Polygon, rhomboid, rectangle.  I had trouble learning shapes.  Use your imagination.  This is clearly a rectangle.  Sort of.

Butter, butter, butter a jellyroll pan.

Put the dough in the pan and push it up around the edges of the pan.

Fry the bacon pieces.  Do not make this recipe without the bacon!  Because the onions are so sweet, they need the salty, bacon flavor for contrast.

Bacon does not need to be crispy, as it will be in the oven again later.  Remove the bacon from the pan but don’t wash it yet.  The onions are going in there now.

Get ready to slice the sweet or Vidalia onions.

This is the onion we will not be using today.

The onions are sweet but I like to add a little bit of sweet, white wine.  A Reisling is perfect – it complements the sweet flavor of the onions.

Again, I feel the need to say, that if you would not drink the wine, do not add it to the food you are cooking.  It does not miraculously improve when heated.  Bad wine is bad wine.  Sour grapes are sour grapes.  An added benefit of cooking with a good wine is that you will enjoy drinking a glass while you cook – and no more sour grapes.  Perfect!

Onions frying in bacon grease and Reisling.  The smell is incredible.  Mouth-watering.  I like to cook them until they are nearly carmelized, however, you can use them raw, carmelized or anywhere in between.

Golden and lovely onions.

Spread the onions on the crust.  Glistening goodness.

Add the bacon.

Mix your fromage blanc blend with the Heavy Cream.  For this recipe, I made my fromage blanc blend by combining Greek Yogurt and Small Curd Cottage Cheese.  I have also used various combinations of yogurt, sour cream, cottage cheese, ricotta cheese and whipped, thinned cream cheese, according to what I had in the refrigerator at the time.  You just want a soft, mild cheese to mix with the heavy cream.  You can order fromage blanc from Amazon for $46.72 plus shipping, but I really don’t think it’s worth the extra cost.  Any combination of these soft, mild cheeses will work just fine.  Trust me – it’s the onion and bacon that are important here.

Pour the cream mixture over the tart.

True Confession – I usually put the cream mixture directly on the crust and put the onions and bacon on top, however, with the photographs and distractions, I forgot what I was doing and had to add the cream mixture on top.  And it was fine.  Yours will be fine, too, either way.

You may need to spread the cream around with the back of a spoon.  Leave the edges bare so the crust can get crusty.

Et voilá!  It should have stayed in the oven about five minutes longer, but I couldn’t wait to taste it, so I took it out early.

Can you see the crisp crust, the sweet onions, the salty bacon, and the mild, melted cheese?  Each bite is a savory symphony in your mouth.  This is my first piece.

And then I had a few more pieces.  Cut it up into small squares for an appetizer.  Serve it for dinner with a nice salad and a Merlot.  It’s also delicious leftover if you reheat in the oven, not the microwave.  Truly Scrumptious.  Enjoy!

Savory Onion and Bacon Tart

Ingredients

• 1 loaf frozen bread dough, thawed
• 1/2 pound bacon
• 2 Vidalia or Sweet onions
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup Reisling (optional)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 475°.
• Butter or grease jelly roll pan.
• Roll bread dough out to fit pan.  Turn up edges on tart.
• Cut bacon into 1/2″ strips and fry it.  Remove bacon from pan.
• Cut onions in very thin slices (or smaller pieces if you like) and sautée in bacon grease.  Add Reisling if desired.
• Combine cream, yogurt and cottage cheese.
• Spread sautéed onions and bacon on dough.
• Spoon cream mixture over the top.  (Or, spoon cream mixture over dough.  Then add onions and bacon.)  Either way works.
• Place in preheated oven and bake 15-20 minutes.  Watch the crust so that it does not burn on the edges.