For the French Dinner this past weekend, I decided that I wanted to make something that I miss a lot from my time abroad in Toulouse, and I settled on the cheesiest, most filling potato dish I could think of: Aligot.

Aligot is basically smooth mashed potatoes infused with about as much cheese as there can be. In Toulouse, there was a small restaurant that specialized in Aligot that had options to put various meats or sausages in the dish as well. 

It’s packed with dairy and flavor, and is the perfect dish to indulge in on a rainy or cold day. Best of all, it requires very little ingredients and time—it took me about 30 minutes in total from start to finish. While my execution was not quite as impressive as the one from thekitcnh.com, it was fun to make. Enjoy! 

Ingredients:

4 pounds potatoes. The website advises Yukon Gold, but any kind will likely be good.

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature. It’s important for the butter to be unsalted because that way you have full control over how seasoned the dish is at the end

1 ½ cups heavy cream

2 pounds grated Gruyere cheese

1 pound fresh mozzarella cheese, drained and grated

Kosher salt.

White or black pepper

Directions:

1. Cook the potatoes. Traditionally, you’ll want to peel them, but I didn’t have a potato peeler so I cleaned and diced them with the skins on (and it came out really flavorful!). You should aim to dice the potatoes into approximately 1-inch cubes. It will take about 15 minutes to cook them until they are ready.

2. Puree the potatoes. Drain them and let cool for a minute, and then start mashing. You can use a device like a food processor, but I only had a regular potato masher and it worked just fine.

3. Add the butter and cream and stir while on medium heat.

4. Beat in the cheese. You’ll need to use a bit of muscle to get this part to the right consistency.

5. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve hot.

This is a really easy recipe that comes out absolutely delicious. It seemed to be well-enjoyed at the dinner and I’m definitely going to be making it again.

This recipe is courtesy of thekitchn.com.