A Croque Monsieur is standard offering at bars and cafes across France: it comprises melted cheese on toast with a slice of ham between the cheese and the meat. When the Isigny Sainte-Mère chef Ivan Vautier prepared his version, he used Normandy’s charcuterie speciality, andouille, with Pont l’Evêque cheese.

The andouille is a speciality sausage of the Vire valley made from pig intestines and may be smoked or unsmoked after being cooked. It is worth seeking out good andouilles, preferably direct from a charcutier, since a poor quality one will haunt your palate for years to come.

The French andouille has a mild flavour and yielding texture. Although the original recipe came to Louisiana with French settlers, the modern Cajun andouille is hot and spicy by comparison to its Normandy ancestors.

The square Pont l’Evêque cheese is best when it is fully ripe, that is soft all the way through. It is one of Normandy’s oldest cheeses, first made by monks in the eleventh century and acquiring its square shape as well as the Pont l’Evêque name in the seventeenth century.

On its own, a piece of ripe Pont l’Evêque and an apple can make a simple and satisfying dessert, particularly if the apple is sweet and slightly floury, like the traditional, russeted Boscoop. This simple ending to a meal is credited with monastic origins.

Ivan’s starter recipe is a simple treatment of some of Normandy’s finest traditional foods: find it at: http://www.isigny-ste-mere.com/EN/r_entrees.php?id_type_recette=1&numero=11