The white flag you can eat
After a fight, the words get stuck. This velvety soup of mushrooms and truffle oil makes peace on your behalf, and puts desire on the table.
Kiss-and-make-up soup with mushrooms and truffle. AI-generated illustrations.
See in Photo Comic artSome evenings you don't want to talk it through any more, you just want to make peace. That's what this soup is for: a dark, intense, velvety blend of button mushrooms, portobello and porcini brought together in a stock lifted with port.
The smell does the work before you do. When it fills the room, the message gets across on its own, without anyone having to grovel or pick up the fight where it left off.
The smell does the work before you do.
A soup that speaks for you
Truffle olive oil is the note that changes everything here. The scent of truffle has a stubborn reputation as a lover's pick-me-up, and they say a single breath of it is enough to stir desire.
No need to buy the whole fungus, which costs a fortune. A spoonful of the flavoured oil brings the same little thrill on a sensible budget, as long as you add it with a light hand.
If you can't find fresh porcini and portobello, soak dried ones in 12 cl of good red wine. They're ready after 20 to 30 minutes, once they've plumped up and their flesh is supple again. The rest of the bottle gets drunk at a leisurely pace in the meantime. That's all part of the plan.
Peel the garlic clove and chop it. It can also go into the pan whole: the result will be the same. Chopping it mainly has the advantage of leaving your fingers scented for the rest of the evening.
Heat the 3 tablespoons of olive oil and throw in the garlic, porcini, portobello and button mushrooms all at once. Stir vigorously for about 5 minutes, until the mushrooms glisten, take on colour and release their forest-floor scent.
Pour in the stock and the port. Season with salt and pepper, cover and cook over a low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until the porcini are tender and the scent has filled the whole house.
Blitz the soup in a blender. It's the least romantic moment of the recipe, but there's no getting round it. Aim for a thick texture, almost like mud, that coats the spoon and smells strong enough to make your mouth water.
Warm the soup bowls before serving, so the soup keeps all its aroma. At the last moment, off the heat, stir the truffle oil into the soup, keeping two drops aside (they go behind your ears, a trick said to be an aphrodisiac), then serve and top each portion with a spoonful of soured cream. Slip into your best outfit, light a candle and come to the table.
Recipes proofread before publication. The virtues credited to foods owe more to tradition than to science: the pleasure of cooking for two is real enough. AI-generated illustrations.
A pumpkin and ginger soup, wild boar roasted with Cahors wine, blood-red candy apples and a glass, not the bottle: a 31 October menu for lovers, with its candlelit table and its games.
Read the menuAdults only: advice, games and illustrations about sexuality. Explicit pictures are for members, who confirm they are adults when signing up.
