I eat cheese every day. Proper French cheese. I’m constantly trying new ones from different regions, hunting down whatever the cheese counter’s got that I haven’t tasted yet. This collection is for fellow cheese addicts who understand that cheese isn’t just an ingredient, it’s the whole point. These recipes with cheese are where the cheese does the heavy lifting, from stupid-easy Croque Madame that take five minutes to properly indulgent Alpine dishes that require commitment and stretchy trousers afterwards.
Cooking with cheese the French way is simple: good cheese, straightforward technique, let the cheese be brilliant. Melting Reblochon over potatoes. Baking rounds of goat cheese until they’re warm and yielding. Folding Comté and Beaufort into fondue and watching it turn glossy and stretchy. You’ll find everything here that French people make regularly.
Some of these cheesy recipes require specific French cheeses. Reblochon for Tartiflette isn’t negotiable. Camembert for baked Camembert needs to be actual Camembert, not some random brie. But others work with whatever good French cheese you can find at your local shop or cheese counter.
Speaking of recipes with Camembert, this soft-ripened beauty deserves special attention. Cooking with Camembert is one of the easiest ways to impress people without actually doing much work. You can bake it whole until the center goes molten, stuff it into chicken breasts, or melt it into pasta. When I’m baking a whole Camembert, I use my Staub Brie Baker, which keeps the cheese contained as it melts and goes straight from oven to table. No mess, no fuss, just a pot of liquid cheese you can dip bread into. Worth every penny if you bake cheese regularly.
The thing about these recipes is they range from weeknight simple to weekend project. A Croque Monsieur takes minutes. Fondue Savoyarde needs your full attention and some practice getting the texture right. Tartiflette sits somewhere in the middle, easy enough for a Tuesday but special enough for guests.
If you want to learn more about French cheeses by region and type, I’m writing comprehensive guides that cover everything from washed-rind to hard aged varieties. Understanding the cheese makes cooking with it so much better.
Tartiflette
Sliced potatoes layered with vegetarian lardons, sweet onions, and white wine, then covered with a whole round of Reblochon cheese and baked until the cheese melts into this impossibly creamy, molten blanket. The potatoes go soft and wine-soaked and the Reblochon melts into every layer with its funky, earthy richness. It's absurdly indulgent and properly comforting. Rich, gooey, smoky and utterly addictive.
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Baked Camembert
This Baked Camembert captures the warm, comforting essence of French country cooking. This little wheel of creamy, oozy cheese, gently infused with fresh herbs, crunchy toasted walnuts and a drizzle of golden honey, is an absolute showstopper, effortless to prepare yet irresistibly indulgent!
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Onion Soup
Onion soup is the ultimate French comfort food, rich, golden broth brimming with caramelised onions, crowned with bubbling cheese and crisp baguette. Whether you're chasing away a chill, or a hangover, this dish does the job deliciously every time.
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Raclette
Raclette cheese melted until they're bubbling and golden at the edges. You scrape the molten cheese onto boiled potatoes, mushrooms, and pickles, it's nutty, creamy, ridiculously rich, pooling around everything in glossy streaks. It is the ultimate Alpine comfort food! Forget complicated cooking, this one's simple, sociable, and downright delicious.
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Croque Madame
Buttery toasted bread layered with vegetarian ham and Gruyère, smothered in creamy béchamel sauce, then grilled until the cheese bubbles and turns golden. The whole thing gets crowned with a fried egg, yolk still runny. It's crispy on the outside, creamy in the middle. Locals love it for good reason: it's hearty, comforting, and never out of place.
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Cheese Fondue Savoyarde
A glorious, bubbling cauldron of Beaufort, Comté, and Emmental melted together enriched with white wine and a splash of Kirsch until it's smooth and impossibly stretchy. It's intensely savory, properly indulgent, and tastes like the French Alps in winter. Served with bite-sized chunks of crusty baguette, inviting everyone to dip and swirl their bread through the luscious, melted cheese!
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Courgette & Feta appetizers
These layers of sautéed courgettes, creamy mascarpone, and tangy feta come together in perfect harmony, all topped off with a satisfying crunch. They're light, elegant, and bursting with flavour, ideal for impressing guests or simply treating yourself to something a little special.
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Galettes Bretonnes
Galettes Bretonnes are deliciously crispy buckwheat pancakes from the rugged coast of Brittany. Unlike the sweet, delicate crêpes you might know, galettes are savoury, hearty, and packed with rich fillings like cheese, egg, and vegetarian ham, the perfect comfort food!
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Pear And Blue Cheese Salad
Ripe pear slices and crumbled Roquefort on a bed of mixed bitter leaves, mâche, frisée, and radicchio, scattered with toasted walnuts and dressed with a proper walnut oil vinaigrette. Sweet against sharp, soft against crunchy. This classic French salad takes 15 minutes and is one of those combinations that just works every single time.
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Roasted Pumpkin with Feta
Wedges of sweet roasted pumpkin, caramelised at the edges, scattered with salty feta and fragrant herbes de Provence. This isn't a traditional French dish, it's a modern riff that borrows the best of Provençal flavours. Stupid easy, looks impressive, works as a side or a light main.
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Asparagus Omelette with Goat’s Cheese
A softly set French omelette filled with quickly sautéed green asparagus and creamy chèvre frais, served with dressed rocket leaves on the side. The eggs are pale and yielding, the asparagus keeps a bit of bite, and the goat's cheese melts just enough to turn creamy and tangy throughout. This is spring cooking at its most straightforward, seasonal, fast, and properly good.
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Cervelle de Canut
Cervelle de canut is Lyon's brilliant answer to herb cheese, fresh fromage blanc whipped with shallots, garlic, chives, parsley, and a good glug of walnut oil. The texture's somewhere between cream cheese and thick yogurt, but lighter and sharper than both.
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Stuffed Mushrooms
Large flat-cap mushrooms stuffed with a rich duxelles filling, their own stems finely chopped and cooked down with shallots, garlic, and thyme until deeply concentrated, then bound with crème fraîche and topped with melted, bubbling Gruyère. These French stuffed mushrooms are the kind of starter that looks like proper effort but comes together in under an hour.
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Camembert Bites
Croquettes de Camembert are crispy, golden-fried cheese balls with a molten, oozing centre. The outside is all crunch and crumb, the inside is pure Norman indulgence. These are great for apéro, serve them hot and watch them disappear.
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Spinach Ricotta Tarts
These little tarts are perfect as snacks, for picnics or as appetizers. The ricotta keeps everything creamy without being heavy, the spinach adds that slight mineral taste, and the peas give you little bursts of sweetness. All wrapped up in buttery puff pastry!
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Tomato Tart
Golden, flaky puff pastry spread with mustard, then topped with ripe tomatoes and melted Emmental, baked until the pastry crisps and the cheese bubbles. The mustard adds a sharp, tangy kick that cuts through the sweet tomatoes and nutty cheese. Feel free to serve it warm with a leafy salad or pack it up for a countryside picnic!
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Salmon appetizers
Puff pastry layered with smoked salmon and garlic herb cheese, then baked until crispy. Makes about 30 bites. Looks impressive, actually easy, disappears in minutes. Perfect for drinks, parties, or when you need something that looks like you made an effort.
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Hachis Parmentier
Lentils du Puy simmered with a classic mirepoix of onion, carrot, and celery, thyme, bay leaf, and a touch of tomato concentrate until rich and deeply savoury, then topped with a generous layer of buttery mashed potato and a blanket of Gruyère, gratiné until golden. This vegetarian hachis parmentier is the sort of dish that makes you want to eat straight from the pan, ideally with a good glass of red.
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Stuffed Aubergines with Goat Cheese & Honey
Roasted aubergine halves stuffed with their own flesh mixed with creamy goat cheese, and herbs, then drizzled with honey and baked until golden. The combination of sweet honey, tangy chèvre, and rich aubergine is absolutely brilliant, one of those French flavour pairings that just works.
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Leek Tart
Caramelized leeks arranged in spirals, dotted with creamy goat cheese, covered with crisp puff pastry, then flipped upside down to reveal a glossy, golden leek tart. This is tarte tatin gone savory, sweet, sticky leeks with tangy cheese and buttery pastry. Looks absolutely stunning and tastes even better. Perfect for lunch with a green salad or as an impressive starter.
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Fig & Goat Cheese Toasts
Creamy, tangy goat cheese spread on toasted bread, topped with sweet, figs and crunchy toasted walnuts. Each bite gives you crispy bread, smooth cheese, soft fruit, and nutty texture all at once. Sweet and savory balanced perfectly, rich but not heavy, the kind of simple combination that just works. This recipe captures a bit of French countryside comfort.
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The best thing about recipes with cheese
The brilliant thing about these recipes with cheese is they’re remarkably forgiving. Tartiflette’s hard to ruin. Fondue just needs stirring and patience. Even the simplest cheese toast becomes something special when you use a proper French cheese with actual character instead of pre-shredded plastic, you know which one I mean.
I eat cheese a lot, and I’m not remotely apologetic about it. Raclette when I want something social, onion soup when I need serious comfort, fondue when it’s freezing and everyone needs to gather round one bubbling pot. These cheesy recipes have gotten me through countless dinners when I couldn’t be bothered to think too hard but still wanted something satisfying.
Cooking with Camembert has become one of my favorite lazy dinner moves. And there are so many recipes with camembert. Bake it with garlic and herbs, serve it with crusty bread, call it dinner. Nobody complains. Add a salad if you’re feeling virtuous. The Staub Brie Baker makes this even easier because you can score the top, add your flavorings, pop the lid on, and bake without worrying about cheese erupting all over your oven.
The recipes with Camembert in this collection show you different ways to use it beyond just baking it whole. Stuffed into chicken, melted into sauce, baked into tarts. Camembert’s mild enough that it works in more dishes than you’d think, but it’s still got enough funk to make things interesting.
What’s your go-to recipe with cheese? And what’s the best French cheese you’ve discovered recently? I’m always hunting for the next regional variety to try. Drop a comment and let me know what you’re cooking with cheese these days.
