Cheese Soufflé

A Beautiful Thing

Just perfect with a runny interior

Our friend, Guillermo, brought us a large Parmesan Cheese Wedge from Italy. The cheese was much milder then the Reggiano we usually buy. It was delicious. We have made many dishes that we could garnish with cheese and then decided to make a Cheese Soufflé. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. The picture of this soufflé tells it all. It was superb! You can get the recipe from our blog of: Feb. 15, 2013. Click the date to get the recipe.

With the Soufflé we made a very unusual Wedge Salad from a recipe in the New York Times. The dressing is served warm over the salad. It looks weird but tasted great.

St. Anselm’s Iceberg Wedge Salad

New York Times

This wedge salad, adorned with blue cheese and warm bacon vinaigrette, is served at the restaurant St. Anselm in Brooklyn. The revelatory vinaigrette is actually a roux made with bacon fat, then thinned with cider vinegar and water, a hit of sugar and another of Dijon mustard. It is superb, and it would not be out of place drizzled over grilled asparagus, accompanied by chopped hard-boiled eggs.

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INGREDIENTS

FOR THE DRESSING:

6 ounces thick-cut bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ cup cider vinegar

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Kosher salt and cracked black pepper, to taste

FOR THE SALAD:

1 large head of iceberg lettuce, cut and cored into 4 wedges

4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

¼ cup roughly chopped fresh parsley

PREPARATION

1.   In a large skillet set over medium heat, cook the bacon until crisp, approximately 8 to 10 minutes. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, remove the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels to drain. Pour off all but 1/4 cup of the bacon fat in the skillet.

2.   Lower the heat under the skillet, then stir in the flour and cook, stirring often with a spoon, until the flour is lightly browned, approximately 3 to 5 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups water to the mixture, along with the vinegar, sugar and mustard, and allow to come to a simmer. Whisk the mixture frequently until the dressing is thick enough to resemble gravy and coat the back of a spoon, approximately 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and remove from the heat.

3.   Put the iceberg wedges on plates. Drizzle with the warm dressing, and sprinkle with the bacon pieces, blue cheese and parsley. Serve immediately.