Several cultures around the world enjoy some version of cake-with-fruit-baked-in-skillet – for instance, the all-American Apple Brown Betty. But few cultures can boast of a skillet cake that also has some of the lush texture of a flan. Clafoutis has always been a favorite in the South of France, especially in the region of Provence that’s loved by, well, pretty much everybody.

According to the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages, four of the six dialects of Occitan are “severely endangered,” with the other two (Gascon and Vivaro-Alpine) in slightly better shape, listed as only “definitely endangered.” Still, whatever happens to the Occitan language once spoken from Provence into Catalonia in the west and Italy in the east, something tells me cherry clafoutis is a baked dessert that’s here to stay.

Fact is, I only learned of the dangers faced by Provencal and other dialects of Occitan after preparing what has to be its single most famous (and most strangely named) recipe. If it hadn’t been for clafoutis and my desire to confirm it’s a real Provencal word, which it is, I probably could have spent my entire existence never hearing of the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages.

France is home to most of “Occitania,” yet considering its love of its own national language, it isn’t exactly going to the mat to protect one of its weirder dialects. Other than the separatist movement that riles up Barcelona and its Catalan surroundings from time to time, approximately no one is.

I can’t understand scholarly linguistic terms like “pan-dialectical,” and I must confess that “fricative” still sounds like a naughty word. I do, however, get it that Occitan is an ancient romance language, from the same lyrical family as Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese, with shared roots in Latin. Perhaps Occitan’s greatest claim to fame, and certainly my favorite, is that it was the vocabulary of the troubadours, who traveled from village to village in the Middle Ages singing songs of love, bravery and honor.

Clafoutis is pronounced more easily than it’s read – kla-FOU-tee – and while other fresh fruits and berries can turn up, it is traditionally made with black cherries. The very name means “filled,” pointing to a flan-like batter that’s filled with cherries, which it most assuredly is. Go back in history and the dessert was made with cherries with pits. Some old-timers insist upon that around Provence even now, but modern pitted cherries will surely make most diners (and bakers) happier.

CLAFOUTIS

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 cups stemmed and pitted cherries, thawed if frozen

3 large eggs

¾ cup whole milk

¾ cup heavy cream

½ cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon almond extract

Powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Melt the butter in a cast-iron skillet. Swirl in the butter so it thoroughly coats the skillet. Place the cherries across the bottom of the pan. In a blender, combine the eggs, milk, cream, the ½ cup sugar, flour, salt and both extracts. Combine completely using a mixer. Pour this batter over the cherries and bake on a middle rack for 20 minutes. Remove the skillet from the oven and sprinkle with the remaining granulated sugar. Bake until golden brown, 24-30 minutes. Let the clafoutis cool in the skillet for about 30 minutes. Serve with sprinkled powdered sugar. Serves 6-8.