Un déjeuner versatile

This is a good menu for cooks with their own ideas, one that can be made for a simple occasion or easily dressed up with a clever touch or two. The soufflé forestière, for instance, is a very elegant first course for an important lunch, but for an everyday meal it can be made as a timbale, baked well ahead of time and then reheated. To accompany the chicken en persillade, the crisp and delicious potato paillasson is really all that is needed. Should you wish a green vegetable as well, I recommend the courgettes à la Campanette, whose cooking broth can be boiled down and added to the cream sauce for the chicken, to give it a touch of the vegetable’s lovely flavor. The clafoutis is a rather homey dessert, and if you prefer a fancier finish to the meal you could serve it with an elegant sauce of sieved raspberries.