There are some things, I guess, that each person needs to learn on his or her own. Last week I was convinced I had stumbled upon the perfect meal for a cold midwinter school night: a simple green salad, a crusty baguette, a two-person goat cheese soufflé, and a bottle of white wine from the Loire. The soufflé is soft while the bread and salad are crunchy, warm while the wine is cool, and light and rich while the salad and wine are acidic. The goat cheese gives everyone a funky, knowing wink. At a time of year when we seem to subsist on pasta, grains, and braised meat, coming up with such an easy and satisfying supper seemed like victory.
When I started planning dinner I had in mind to conjure Elizabeth David’s “almost primitive and elemental meal evoked by the words: ‘Let’s just have an omelette and a glass of wine.’” But I’ve been trying to find new ways to show off my local goat cheese, which seems especially good this winter, and since I lost my mother’s iron omelet pan in a move a few years ago, my omelets haven’t been the same.
The soufflé idea came from James Peterson’s Glorious French Food. He’s got the traditional version, of course, with the milk-and-flour béchamel sauce. But he follows this with a variation so simple it’s even less work (and requires less technique) than an omelet. I smeared a little butter around the inside of a deep, round baking dish, sprinkled in some parmesan I’d run over the Microplane grater, and made a little foil collar in case the soufflé got out of hand. I separated a half dozen eggs and mashed four of the yolks into a six-ounce log of goat cheese. I beat the whites to stiff peaks, folded them into the yolk/cheese mixture, poured the result into the baking dish, and set that in the bottom of a 425°F oven. Twenty minutes later, the soufflé top was brown and trying to peek over the top of the collar. It started collapsing within moments of coming out of the oven, of course, but my wife and I were too busy helping it out onto plates to notice.
And then, after dinner, paging through the soufflé section in Jim Peterson’s book, I found this: “I make soufflés often, usually on those days when there’s nothing but eggs and cheese in the fridge. With a tangy little salad and a glass of white wine, a soufflé makes a perfect, luxurious little meal.” Maybe if I’d read that earlier I wouldn’t have been so surprised at how good the meal was, but I bet I wouldn’t have been any less satisfied.
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