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 and Roquefort on bitter leaves with toasted walnuts and a walnut oil vinaigrette. The pear is soft and sweet, the cheese is sharp and salty, the walnuts add crunch and a slight bitterness that ties it all together!
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Roasted Pumpkin with Feta
Wedges of pumpkin roasted with honey and herbes de Provence until caramelised and sticky at the edges, scattered with salty crumbled feta. Sweet, salty and fragrant. Not a traditional French dish, but it borrows all the right Southern flavours!
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Asparagus Omelette with Goat’s Cheese
A softly set French omelette filled with quickly sautéed green asparagus and creamy tangy goat's cheese, served with dressed rocket leaves on the side. This recipe is spring cooking at its most straightforward, seasonal, and tasty!
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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!
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Camembert Bites
Golden double-breaded Camembert bites, fried until the crust shatters with a molten oozing Normandy cheesy centre. Rich, creamy, and deeply savoury. Serve them hot!
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Spinach Ricotta Tarts
Golden, flaky puff pastry cups filled with a creamy ricotta, spinach, and pea mixture. Light yet rich, with a mineral note from the spinach and sweet bursts from the peas, all wrapped in buttery pastry. Perfect for picnics, snacks, or as elegant appetizers!
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Tomato Tart
Ripe summer tomatoes on buttery flaky puff pastry with a savory backbone from the Dijon mustard and melted comforting Emmental cheese on top. This is the Provence-style tomato tart!
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Salmon appetizers
Buttery, shattering puff pastry with a layer of smoked salmon and creamy garlic herb cheese inside, finished with black and white sesame seeds on top. Rich, salty, and gone in one bite!
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Hachis Parmentier
Lentilles du Puy simmered with a classic mirepoix until rich and deeply savoury, topped with buttery mashed potato and golden Gruyère. Earthy, peppery lentils underneath, soft buttery mash on top, and that gratiné crust holding it all together!
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Stuffed Aubergines with Goat Cheese & Honey
Aubergine roasted until sweet and collapsing, topped with creamy goat cheese, herbs and a drizzle of honey. The combination is rich, tangy, and floral all at once. It's the south of France on a plate!
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Leek Tart Tatin
Leeks steamed until tender, glazed with honey and butter, baked under puff pastry and flipped upside down. Sweet, sticky, caramelised leeks and melted goat cheese on top and crisp buttery pastry underneath. This is tarte tatin gone savory!
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Fig & Goat Cheese Toasts
Creamy, tangy goat's cheese spread on warm toasted sourdough, topped with sweet fresh figs, toasted crunchy walnuts and a drizzle of honey. The perfect sweet and savoury combination from the south of France.
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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.
