Soufflé Piémontais

Soufflé Piémontais (Piedmont-style maize soufflé) teaches the governing law of every hot soufflé: the base gives flavor and the whites give height, but only an oven already at heat lets both survive. Before you touch a pan, set the dish, the oven, and every ingredient in place. Once the whites are folded, the clock belongs to the soufflé.

The original formula called for a mild oven to cook the maize paste, a buttered timbale mould, and a second saucepan waiting so the paste could be worked without delay. It needed neither stockpot, saucier, nor salamander. Your equivalents are a covered ovenproof saucepan, a straight-sided soufflé dish, and an electric mixer. The one-pint formula is already right for four generous side portions, so its proportions remain intact; only the second saucepan, useful brigade scaffolding, becomes a warmed mixing bowl. One cook, one stove, one evening.

The finished Soufflé Piémontais should stand high above its dish, butter-gold at the crown and creamy beneath, with the sweet grain of maize held firmly against the salt of Parmesan. Cooking the paste thoroughly is part of the dish and must stay. Fold the whites only until the heavy base has become light, then fill the dish and bake at once.