Well, instead of watching the final of Masterchef Professional (it’s pretty obvious who’s going to win), I’ve spent the night cooking. I think it’s too late to enter the Prosecco Matching Competition, but I’ll stick up this post, just in case. Truly great food & wine matching is pretty rare, I think, and I’ve only experienced a few combinations where a dish has been matching with a wine that raises the experience of both. One of these experiences was at Le Gavroche, where the soufflé Suisesse was divine and perfectly complemented the Martel Cuvee Victoire 1998 champagne. Not having cooked a soufflé and being in one of my particularly ambitious cooking moods, I thought I’d try a Goat’s Cheese Souffle combination with Prosecco.

Goat’s Cheese Souffle (3 mini portions):

2 egg whites

1 egg yolk

100 ml double cream

40g soft Goat’s Cheese, grated & rind removed (I used Soignon Goat’s cheese)

Salt & Pepper

Put the oven on Gas mk 6 (200C, 400F) and grease 3 ramekins. Add the cheese and cream to a pan and put on a low heat. Whilst the cheese is melting in the cream, whisk the egg whites in a very clean bowl until you get stiff peaks. Once the cheese is melted into the cream, turn off the heat, add the egg yolk and season.  Fold the egg whites into cheese mixture, trying to maintain as much volume as possible. Spoon into the ramekins and stick into the oven for 8-10 minutes.

I did think the combination of the prosecco with the soufflé, although obviously not a patch on my Le Gavroche experience, unsurprisingly! The only problem was that (in addition to being a day late to enter the competition) I didn’t have the right prosecco. Oh well.