Celebrity Square Meals: Joanne Harris's Tourte au Camembert

I got into cooking almost by accident because food is a central character in my books. Just think of Chocolat. Lots of readers' groups wanted to do dinners around them, and asked for recipes, so that's how I got into cook books. My friend Fran Warde and I have just had another one published, and that's where this recipe is from.

I love this dish. It's from a tradition of French cooking from the South-west. A lot of comfort food relies on stodge. This doesn't - you can have it with salad, vegetables or just on its own. It's as easy as toast. I live with two vegetarians, my husband and daughter, so it wouldn't occur to me to cook meat.

Ingredients

700g potatoes
200g savoy cabbage, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed and chopped
1-2 green chillies, seeds removed, diced
Sea salt
Fresly ground black pepper
1 egg, beaten
5tbsp olive oil
200g cherry tomatoes
150g Camembert, finely sliced

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Cook the potatoes for 15 minutes, then drain and, when cool enough, cut into 3cm cubes and place in a bowl. Add the diced cabbage, garlic, chilli, seasoning and egg and mix well.

Oil a metal baking dish with some of the olive oil and place in the oven to heat. Add the remaining oil to the potato mixture. Remove the baking dish from the oven, spoon in the potato mixture, add the tomatoes and top with finely sliced Camembert. Bake for 45 minutes until golden.

'The French Market' by Joanne Harris and Fran Warde is published by Doubleday, priced £20