The Elephant and Butter has been underground lately, in the basement stacks of the local library. There resides a substantial subterranean vault cookbook section aisle, and I've been borrowing volumes one by one. The other night I took
Suzanne Goin's "Sunday Suppers at Lucques" over to the coffee shop and copied down recipes. Though I was tempted to try the recipe for ragoût of morels with crème fraîche, if only because of all those attractive little grave and circumflex marks hovering above the words, I opted instead for the parmesan pudding. The savory custard very quickly took a turn toward pecorino romano, though, because that's what the refrigerator dictated. I also cracked pepper and scattered some thyme on top. Custard in itself, you see, offers few surface effects. The taste of this savory version, though: salvific.
