Out of the blue

Anyone who dismisses all types of blue cheese as unbearably pungent should taste fourme d'Ambert. The cheese - the production of which is said to date back to Roman times - has a firm but creamy texture and a mild taste, without the sharp saltiness of many other blue cheeses. It's made of raw or pasteurised cow's milk in the Ambert commune of France's Auvergne region, known for its dairy products.

Fourme d'Ambert is made as other blue cheeses are - it is inoculated with edible Penicillium spores, which produce the blue-green veining - but after being moulded into its traditional tall cylindrical shape, it is flavoured with a light, sweet dessert wine called Vouvray moelleux.

The relatively mild flavour means fourme d'Ambert can be eaten early in a tasting (cheeses are tasted from mildest to strongest, so the pungent ones don't obliterate the palate) and, as with other types of blue cheese, it is delicious when eaten with nuts, particularly walnuts.

If the cheese is slightly dried and past its prime, use it in potato gratin. Thinly slice potatoes and blanch them in boiling salted water. Drain the potato slices and pat them dry, then put them in a buttered gratin dish. Add small chunks of fourme d'Ambert over the potato then pour cream - flavoured with salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg - into the dish. Sprinkle bread crumbs that have been lightly toasted with melted butter over the potato then bake until the cream is thick and bubbling and the surface of the gratin is brown.