“Who puts down hunger”
A very simple recipe (cupboard cooking)
A very simple recipe (cupboard cooking)

A dish that we ate at my grandparents’ house (a Savoyard grandfather), then at my parents’ house and now at home (my children love it). When cooking is a family affair! It’s a very simple recipe, cupboard cuisine par excellence: a large thick salted pancake with cheese and bacon. A rustic dish (it’s an old peasant recipe) to make in the evening, to accompany a green salad. Perfect for satisfying your hungry people (Matafan, meaning to suppress hunger).
THE INGREDIENTS OF MATAFAN:
Serves 4 to 5
- 20 cl milk
- 150 g flour
- 4 eggs
- about 100 g grated cheese (comté, emmenthal beaufort)
- about 150 gr of bacon
- 1 pinch of nutmeg, salt, pepper
THE RECIPE FOR MATAFAN:
- Mix the flour, eggsand milk (into a very thick pancake batter). Then the grated cheese
- Add a pinch of nutmeg (optional). Season with salt (be careful if your bacon is smoked) and pepper
- Blanch the bacon for a few minutes in boiling water
- Heat a little oil (or duck fat) in a non-stick pan and pour in the mixture
- Cook over low heat without stirring the preparation (just peeling off the edges with a spatula) and let it set
- When it comes off the pan and the bottom is golden, sprinkle bacon on top of the dough (which is not yet set and is a little runny)
- Slide the pan into the oven at 180° (or the patty onto a baking dish) and finish cooking
- Enjoy hot with a salad
TRICKS:
1 – You can replace the bacon with small pieces of white or raw ham
2 – You can also continue cooking in a pan after turning the preparation over but it will be less puffy than in the oven
OTHER RECIPE IDEAS TO MAKE WITH THE FAMILY
Potato pancakes (or Swiss rösti)
Tuna croquettes (by Laurent Mariotte)
Zucchini pancakes (from Victorine)
Oven-stuffed butternut squash
The Young Man Sketcher (by Romain Thibault)
Carrot cake with cumin
The matafan (or matefaim) of my childhood
Brick sheet tips
Chili con carne express
Pumpkin stuffed with mushrooms (but not only…)
