Much of what we love about French food is its simplicity, as well as its great flavors. From the seafood and fresh vegetables of the sunny south, to the rich, comforting dishes of the Alps, to the apple desserts from Normandy. This is home-cooking, not swanky restaurant food, that any cook can prepare. Read on and rediscover these fabulous French recipes.
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Moules marinière
There are many variations on this classic mussels recipe from Normandy, but the original is still the best. You’ll need a large pot to cook the mussels – they’re steamed open in white wine, shallots or onion and herbs. You can then add a little cream to the sauce. If you find the mussels are gritty, remove them from the pan then strain the sauce through a fine sieve. Serve with crusty bread.
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Buckwheat galettes
Hailing from Brittany, these savory pancakes are usually sold in little crêperies or from food trucks in a village square. Buckwheat is actually from the rhubarb family, not a wheat. The galettes are filled with everything from cheese, ham and eggs to spinach. Our recipe suggests chard (use spinach instead if you need to) and Gruyère cheese, topped with an egg. They make a lovely light lunch.
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Leek tart
Root vegetables dominate the cooking of Northern France, and there’s no better example of this than in a leek tart. The leeks are slowly sweated down in butter until sweet and tender, before being baked in pastry in a savory custard of eggs and thick cream. Served warm, it just needs a crisp green salad on the side.
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French onion soup
A really good onion soup, topped with cheese toasts, is a meal in itself. A couple of things to note to get the best flavor – use the best stock you can and cook the onions slowly until they are sweet and caramelized. Our recipe uses chicken stock, but you can use beef stock which is traditional and makes it more meaty. You need nothing else, except perhaps a glass of red wine.
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Duck confit
“Confit” is a French method of salting meat or poultry, slow-cooking it, then preserving it in fat until being fried until crisp. Duck legs are traditional, and you end up with meltingly tender meat and crisp skin. Serve with sautéed potatoes cooked in the duck fat. There are a few stages to make it, but it’s very simple and definitely worth the time.
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Boeuf bourguignon
Marinated and slow-cooked beef with vegetables in red wine, boeuf bourguignon (French for Burgundy beef) is often underrated. But made in the classical way, it’s always a winner. An inexpensive cut of beef becomes meltingly tender after slow cooking and traditionally it would be simmered in pinot noir, a type of wine from Burgundy. The dish is even better made the day before serving, to allow for a richer flavor to develop, and it freezes extremely well.
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Sole meunière
Great fish dishes don’t come more simple than this. You need super fresh sole fillets, flour, butter, lemon and parsley. The fish is dredged in the flour, fried in butter, then the lemon and parsley are added at the end to make the meunière sauce. It’s perfect served with buttered new potatoes and peas.
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Roast leg of lamb with garlic and lavender
Roast lamb with lots of garlic is a very French thing. Traditionally it would have been a leg of mutton, which was slow-cooked for several hours. This recipe has more of a modern twist and the lavender adds a taste of Provence (the region is famous for its lavender fields). You do need to marinate the lamb the day before cooking. Once roasted, the juices make the most wonderful sauce.
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Mediterranean fish soup
The aroma and flavors of this soup will transport you straight to the south of France. It’s served with grated Gruyère cheese, a saffron aioli (a rich garlicky mayonnaise spiked with saffron) and garlic toasts. It takes a little effort, but it’s a meal in itself. The recipe specifies white fish, but you could add in some mussels and shrimps too.
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Quiche Lorraine
The province of Lorraine, in eastern France bordering Germany, is the home of quiche. It was originally made using bread dough as the base, but now pastry is more common. Shop-bought versions just can’t compare to homemade. It should have a crisp pastry shell and the creamy filling should be just set, and golden brown. It needs to be served warm or at room temperature.
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Cassoulet
This hearty bean and meat stew hails from around the city of Toulouse. The basic ingredients are white haricot beans and sausage, but other additions, such as duck confit, vary from town to town. It’s straightforward to make, but it needs a long, slow cooking time. To taste it at its best, you need to soak dried beans overnight before cooking. This recipe is made with sausages and smoked pancetta, and a topping of golden, crunchy breadcrumbs.
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Tapenade
A black olive paste from sunny Provence, tapenade takes its name from the Provençal word for capers, tapèno. It’s lovely served on toasts or crackers, but you should find the best black olives you can, or it can be overpoweringly salty. The olives are whizzed up with capers, garlic, lemon and olive oil. You could add four anchovies to our recipe, to add a savory note.
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Basque chicken
This is a great one-pot dish, epitomizing the traditional flavors of the Basque Country with red and yellow peppers. It also uses a local chili, piment d’Espelette, which is mild and fragrant, and from the village of the same name (though you can just use chili flakes instead). The chicken, herbs, vegetables and tomatoes are all gently cooked in white wine.
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Daube of beef
There’s an old French saying about daube of beef – “the longer it stays on the fire, the better it will be”. This rich beef stew does take around six hours in the oven and needs marinating the day before. But it’s worth the wait. Full of herbs, vegetables and red wine, with a wonderful aroma of fresh orange zest, our recipe serves eight but it freezes really well too.
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Fougasse
Fougasse is a traditional flat bread from Provence, which is typically cut into shapes with a blade so it resembles an ear of wheat. It’s similar to an Italian focaccia, but contains less oil and has a crisper crust. Happily, fougasse a straightforward bread to make, and you can simply shape it into a circle or rectangle if you prefer. You can flavor it with herbs, or try our version with olives and zucchini.
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Salade Niçoise
A vibrant, bright salad which is loved the world over, salade Niçoise epitomizes the South of France (Niçoise indicates it’s from the city of Nice). There are many versions of it, but it should contain top-quality canned tuna in olive oil, black olives, boiled eggs, salad leaves and tomatoes. You can add in some baby new potatoes or blanched green beans too. It’s dressed simply with red wine vinegar and olive oil.
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Gratin dauphinois
This dish of thinly sliced potatoes baked in cream and garlic is perfection alongside roasted meats or steak. It originates from southeastern France, but is served everywhere. It needs to be cooked quite slowly, so the potatoes absorb the garlicky cream. You can slice the potatoes using the slicing attachment on a food processor for speed. Our top tip? Add a teaspoon of flour to the cream, to prevent the slightly curdled look it can sometimes have.
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Beef paupiettes
Paupiettes are thin slices of meat or fish which are rolled and stuffed before cooking. Our recipe using beef is a real French bistro classic. The flattened slices of rump or sirloin are stuffed with sausage meat, then cooked with onions, mushrooms, Madeira and stock until rich and thickened to make a wonderful sauce. These are perfect served with creamy mash and greens.
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Croque madame
A traditional cheese and ham toastie with béchamel sauce becomes “croque madame”, rather than “monsieur”, when it has a fried egg on top. This recipe has a clever twist on the original. Instead of the sauce, it has creamed spinach in it for extra flavor. You could add a slice of ham or smoked salmon, if you like.
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Snails bourguignon
You can’t really talk about French dishes without including snails! This classic dish from Burgundy consists of snails marinated in garlic and herbs, then cooked in garlic butter. If you’ve never eaten them, they taste earthy and are slightly chewy – not everyone’s taste – but the best bit is dunking your bread in the garlicky butter.
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French toast
French toast is called pain perdu in French, which literally translates to lost bread, as it uses up stale bread or brioche. Our recipe is perfect for a special Sunday brunch. Thick slices of bread or brioche are dunked in an egg, milk and cinnamon mixture, then pan-fried in butter. It’s served with apples which have been caramelized in butter and sugar, with a splash of Calvados – apple brandy. Add whipped cream on top, and you’re ready to go in 20 minutes.
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Fig and frangipane tarts
Every region of France has its own fruit tarts, making the most of what’s in season. Fresh fruits are often baked in frangipane, an almond, butter, egg and sugar filling, which rises to make a light almond sponge. Figs are always a favorite. Our recipe gives instructions to make the pastry, but you can buy it ready-made, if you prefer. To be very French, serve with crème fraîche.
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Floating islands
Given that the French generally have a very sweet tooth, it’s no surprise that this dessert, known as île flottante in French, is so popular. Lightly poached meringues “float” in a rich vanilla custard, and are drizzled with warm caramel. You’ll need to hone your pastry skills for this recipe, but it’s a real crowd-pleaser.
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Crêpes Suzette
It’s time to fall back in love with this wonderful retro dessert. After all, who could resist the combination of thin pancakes, cooked with butter, sugar, fresh orange juice and zest, then laced with orange liqueur? If you have time, allow the pancake batter to rest for an hour or two to give a lighter result.
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Tarte Tatin
It’s said that this recipe was created by the Tatin sisters at their restaurant in Normandy, back in the day. But wherever it originated, you can’t beat this fabulous upside-down, caramelized apple pie. You do need to use apples which remain firm after cooking, such as a Golden Delicious or Granny Smith, and you’ll need a shallow pan which can go on the hob, as well as into the oven.
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Crème brûlée
Rich vanilla custard topped with a crunchy caramel topping, crème brûlée is high on everyone’s favorite dessert list. It’s not hard to make, but we do recommend you use a cook’s blow torch for the caramel as it’s easier to direct the heat. Our recipe contains a hint of cardamom in the custard – not traditional, but it adds a fragrant note.
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Quince clafoutis
In its traditional home in the Limousin region, clafoutis is made with cherries. But it’s also made with whichever fruits happen to be in season – plums or apricots in summer, dried fruit such as prunes in winter. Here it’s made using poached quince, which will fill your kitchen with heavenly aromas.
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Lemon cream tart
Everyone loves the fresh, zesty taste of a lemon tart. In this recipe, the light and creamy filling can be made up to four days in advance, making life much easier for the cook. You can even buy a pastry case, rather than baking your own. Serve with fresh blueberries or raspberries.
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Macarons
It doesn’t seem that long ago that we could only buy these bite-sized filled almond meringues in a chic French pâtisserie. Now easier to find, they certainly come at a price. So why not try making your own with our perfect macaron recipe? It may take a few batches to get it right, but you’ll have a real sense of achievement. Our top tip? If the weather is humid, don’t even attempt them, as they will collapse before baking.
About Toni Tipton-Martin: Toni Tipton-Martin‘s journalism career began in college in Los Angeles, where she became the food editor of the local newspaper her senior year. After graduation she became the nutrition writer at The Los Angeles Times and a contributing editor to Heart and Soul Magazine. In 1991, she became […]
