Les Diots au Vin Blanc with Crozets (Savoie Sausages in White Wine Sauce with Crozets)

The Rhone Alps feature lush valleys and dramatic mountain peaks, and from this varied landscape comes an array of wonderful ingredients. This particular dish in fact features a variety of foods that are important parts of the gastronomy of the French Alps, namely beaufort cheese made from cow’s milk; crozets, a pasta made with buckwheat flour; and last but certainly not least, diots. Diots are a delicious meaty sausage that can be cooked in a variety of ways, including grilled, boiled, or, in the case of this recipe, in white wine.

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Looking for diots in the U.S. to make this spectacular dish? Ask your local butcher for sausages that are made with minced shoulder of pork without any fat. Over in France, diots can feature even more flavors; some are even made with cabbage! As Chef Nikki of our Cooking in the French Alps culinary vacation says, “the traditional diets in white wine are served with crozet (as they are with this recipe) or polenta, as well as buttered cabbage or wild mushrooms). This dish can be found in most of the Alpine restaurants and is often a favorite at local village fetes.”

Learn more fabulous recipes that hail from the Savoie region of France with Chef Nikki during a Rhone Alps cooking vacation.

Les Diots au Vin Blanc avec Gratin de Crozets (Savoie Sausages in White Wine Sauce with Crozet Gratin)

Serves 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 60 minutes
Cook method: Simmer

Ingredients for main dish

• 8 diot sausages
• 4 onions, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• 80 grams (5 tbsp and 1 tsp) butter
• 1 tbsp flour
• 200 ml (1/2 gallon) white wine
• Thyme
• Salt and white cracked pepper, to taste

Read our interview with Chef Nikki.

Ingredients for “gratin de crozets”

• 200 grams (just over 3/4 cup) crozets pasta
• 125 grams (1/2 cup) cream
• 100 grams (just under 1/2 cup) beaufort cheese
• Salt and pepper

Instructions
1. Start by making the main dish. Heat 25 grams of the butter in a large deep pan. then add the diot sausages and cook for about 10 minutes over medium heat, or until they’re golden. Remove them from the heat.

2. In another pan, heat the rest of the butter in a heavy-based saucepan, add the onions as well as the garlic. Cook this over medium heat until they turn soft and golden, stirring with a wooden spoon.

3. To the pan, sprinkle over some plain flour over the onions and cook for another two minutes, continuing to turn the onions with a wooden spoon.

4. Pour the white wine into the pan with the onions, garlic, and flour, and stir until the sauce thickens.

5. Continue assembling the dish by putting the sausages into a heavy-based pan. Pour the sauce over the sausage, and dress with thyme, salt, and pepper, and then cook over low heat on the stovetop for 40 minutes.

6. While that cooks, you can, perhaps, prepare something to go with it: gratin de crozets. To do this, cook the crozets in salted boiling water for 25 minutes, drain, and then lightly sprinkle with with pepper.

7. Pour the crozets into a buttered oven dish, and then top with the cream and cheese. Put in the oven at 180°C (or 350°F) and cook for 15 minutes, or until it’s turned golden and the cheese has melted. Serve along with the sausages!

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