The pâté aux pommes de terre

Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...

, pɑte o pɔm də tɛʁ, or pâté de pommes de terre is a speciality of the Limousin

Limousin (région)

Limousin is one of the 27 regions of France. It is composed of three départements: Corrèze, Creuse and the Haute-Vienne.Situated largely in the Massif Central, as of January 1st 2008, the Limousin comprised 740,743 inhabitants on nearly 17 000 km2, making it the second least populated region of...

 and the Allier

Allier

Allier is a department in central France named after the river Allier.- History :Allier is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Auvergne and Bourbonnais.In 1940, the government of Marshal...

 (Bourbonnais

Bourbonnais

Bourbonnais was a historic province in the centre of France that corresponded to the modern département of Allier, along with part of the département of Cher. Its capital was Moulins.-History:...

) regions in Central France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. It can be served either as a side dish or as the main course. Today it is often eaten with a green salad. Its main ingredients are potato slices and crème fraîche

Crème fraîche

Crème fraîche is a soured cream containing about 28% butterfat and with a pH of around 4.5. It is soured with bacterial culture, but is less sour than sour cream. It has a comparatively high viscosity and a higher fat content....

, which are used to fill a puff pastry

Puff pastry

In baking, a puff pastry is a light, flaky, leavened pastry containing several layers of fat which is in solid state at 20 °C . In raw form, puff pastry is a dough which is spread with solid fat and repeatedly folded and rolled out and used to produce the aforementioned pastries...

 crust. The pie is then baked in the oven until the dish is covered with a golden-brown crust.

There are different ways to prepare the pâté aux pommes de terre, and the seasonings vary from family to family. Parsley and onion are common ingredients in the Allier, while the use of garlic and meat is common in the Limousin, Haute-Vienne

Haute-Vienne

Haute-Vienne is a French department named after the Vienne River. It is one of three departments that together constitute the French region of Limousin.The chief and largest city is Limoges...

, and Creuse

Creuse

Creuse is a department in central France named after the Creuse River.-History:Creuse is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from the former province of La Marche....

.

Before potatoes began to be used widely in France in the 19th century, this dish was made with leftover bread dough and was baked with a simple garnish of chopped garlic, flat-leaved parsley, and fatty bacon.

Other names

• « Gâteau de pommes de terre » (potato cake).

• In the Occitan language, this dish is known as « pastis de treflas » or as « pastis de pompiras », which are two ways of referring to the potato in the Limousin Occitan variant.