Pommes de Terre Parmesane

Pommes de Terre Parmesane (Parmesan Duchesse potato cakes) teaches the discipline of the classical variation: change the flavour, keep the structure. The one true thing to know before touching a pan is that the Duchesse paste must already hold a neat ridge. The oven can colour a sound galette, but it cannot repair a slack one.

The original assumed its Duchesse preparation was waiting at the potato station, with buttered trays in rotation and an oven that recovered its heat at once. Here, the book's per-pound formula becomes one pound of paste, enough for twelve small galettes and four people. A quarter-sheet pan, a thoroughly preheated oven, and the upper rack replace the brigade equipment honestly. Batch holding is scaffolding and goes; the two-ounce cheese ratio, egg gilding, Parmesan cap, and seven-to-eight-minute finish are the dish and stay.

Done properly, the galettes arrive plump and butter-gold, with nutty Parmesan running through the tender centres and bronzed into delicate caps. Work the cheese into paste that is warm, not hot, then test one portion before shaping the rest. That judgment of consistency is the step that matters most.