Midnight partners

Aside from the price and the cachet, Champagne is one of life’s simplest pleasures -- just lifting a glass is a mood-altering experience. But it brings out the Gaudi in hosts. Who doesn’t want to take a great thing and make it more decadent by serving it with foie gras and caviar and other blessed excess?

And there’s one little problem with that. As anyone who has ever tried to juggle a full flute and a warm blini with beluga knows, something has to give, and it’s usually the glass. You have to set it down to tackle a terrine or slurp an oyster. And when you do, you lose the immediate connection and contrast between the sparkle in the wine and the richness of the food.

Champagne goes much better with hors d’oeuvres you can just pick up and carry. It’s no wonder gougeres are the classic accompaniment in France. The warm cheese melds with the effervescence of the chilled wine in one perfect mouthful.

Actually, Champagne is the most food-friendly wine you can buy. The bubbles catch just about any flavor and ferry it across your palate in surprising harmony. You don’t have to spring for ounces of caviar or pounds of shrimp for a party. You can get creative with much less.

Even Champagne’s less-exalted cousins, Prosecco and cava, are proof of the partnering potential of wine when it sparkles. I’ve had everything from little tea sandwiches to potato chips with Prosecco in sidewalk cafes in Italy and everything from salty almonds to spicy chorizo with cava in Spain. Always, the wine doubles the pleasure of the food.

Those memories and some recent “research” -- a bottle of Veuve Clicquot and a bagful of meats, cheese and condiments -- made it easy to come up with an array of hors d’oeuvres for Champagne, a little movable feast to be eaten with one hand while the other clutches a glass. It’s simple food with complex flavors.

Nuts are obviously a natural, since Champagne plays well with both salty and crunchy. Any nuts will do, whether roasted pecans with a little cayenne or just salted pistachios straight out of the shell, but almonds seem the most elegant. I like Elizabeth David’s technique for them, described in her book “Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen.”

The almonds are tossed in a little sweet almond oil (or butter) with seasonings, then slowly roasted until each one is crisp to the core, which is a pretty classic treatment for any nut. But her secret is to immediately transfer the almonds from the oven to a brown paper bag, then let them sit for an hour or two. The sealed bag soaks up any excess oil while the nuts are subtly infused with the flavorings. She used only cayenne as a spice, but I add crushed rosemary and also salt the nuts before and after toasting to intensify the taste.

Smoked salmon is another can’t-miss companion for Champagne. Like caviar, it combines the saline essence of the sea with an unctuous quality that the bubbles amplify and then cut through. You can buy little smoked salmon roulades with cream cheese that are perfectly presentable, but I prefer the Italian treatment called tramezzini. These are the tiny sandwiches served with Prosecco in sidewalk cafes everywhere in a country that believes wine was meant to be drunk with food. Sometimes they’re filled with cured meats, but most often I’ve had them with smoked salmon.

Tramezzini are like old-fashioned canapes but much classier, cut into fingers or triangles so you get just a bite between sips. The usual Italian combination layers thinly sliced cucumbers and mayonnaise between the skinny slices of soft bread, but watercress and creme fraiche have a sprightlier look and taste.

Because the sandwich is literally white bread, you need the best salmon you can buy, sliced not too thin. Wild salmon from Alaska is sensational smoked. All it needs is a squeeze of lemon and a couple of grinds of white pepper.

Two flavors are better than one

Two other Italian classics -- prosciutto and Parmigiano-Reggiano -- go especially well with Champagne, but not all on their lonesome. Prosciutto is hard to eat, even wrapped around out-of-season asparagus as you see it so often at holiday parties. And the cheese may taste great with Champagne if you serve it in little chunks the way they do in Italy, but it seems a bit inelegant.

Blend the two together with a little soft butter to bind them, though, and you get a great topping for crostini, to be garnished with toasted pine nuts and chopped fresh basil for color and crunch.

Duck rillettes are another classic partner for Champagne, but they’re a pain to make well from scratch, and the store-bought kind always seem as if they’re missing something. Duck confit, however, is one of the great convenience foods, and when you blend it into a spread with a little butter it’s almost better than rillettes. Topping each toast with mango chutney and creme fraiche takes the duck to another level: You get bursts of creaminess and tanginess in every bite.

Spanish chorizo, simply cut into thin slices as it often is, doesn’t quite seem dressed well enough for a party. Instead I combine it with corn and Cheddar cheese to make little cocktail madeleines, baked in the traditional tins used for the sweet kind. The outside turns crunchy while the center stays rich and soft.

Once you get started with Champagne, you can see how food loves the stuff as much as humans do. Wild mushrooms go well with it. So do smoked scallops or trout, raw oysters and crab cakes. High-fat creamy cheeses do, and so do some sharper ones, like mimolette. A Texas friend even swears you can serve Champagne with bits of barbecued pork loin with a heavy-on-the-chiles sauce.

As for the Champagne, brut is my preference because I have low tolerance for fruity wines. But even the sweeter sparklers team up well with most foods. Chiles and chutneys, in fact, go better with slightly sweet Champagne, just the way Gewurztraminers take to curry and enchiladas. The important thing is just to drink it easy.

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Parmesan-prosciutto crostini

Total time: 25 minutes

Servings: 8 to 10

4 ounces prosciutto (1 cup chopped)

1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

6 tablespoons unsalted butter,

softened, sliced into small pieces

1 teaspoon coarsely ground

black pepper

1 ficelle (long, very thin French bread)

1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

1. Chop the prosciutto very fine. Place in a mixing bowl with cheese, butter and pepper. Mix with a wooden spoon until smooth and completely blended. Add more pepper if you like. (If you’re not using this immediately, hold it at room temperature; refrigerating it will harden it and it can’t be easily spread.)

2. Warm the ficelle in the oven on low heat. Cut into thin slices. Spread about 1 tablespoon prosciutto mixture on each and sprinkle with a few pine nuts.

Each serving: 238 calories; 11 grams protein; 16 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 15 grams fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 35 mg. cholesterol; 541 mg. sodium.

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Spice up a classic

Madeleines, the classic French scallop-shaped tea cakes immortalized by Proust, are traditionally sweet and buttery but have lately shown up in savory versions like our chorizo-corn appetizer. They’re baked in tin-plated madeleine molds, available in cookware stores. The molds should be well-buttered so the madeleines will lightly crisp on the bottom and pop out of the pans easily. Fill the molds just half full for the most perfectly shaped little cakes.

Donna Deane

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Chorizo-corn madeleines

Total time: About 30 minutes

Servings: Makes 48 madeleines

1 cup flour

1/2cup semolina

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

1 1/2cups finely grated sharp Cheddar

1 cup finely diced Spanish chorizo (about 4 ounces)

1/4 cup finely chopped green onions

1 cup frozen corn, thawed

1 stick butter, melted, plus 3 tablespoons for tins

4 large eggs

1 cup half-and-half

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Combine the flour, semolina, baking powder, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl and stir with a fork until well mixed.

2. Add the cheese, chorizo, green onions and corn. Toss to combine. Stir in the melted butter, eggs and half-and-half and mix well.

3. Brush 4 madeleine tins generously with melted butter. Spoon the batter in to fill each mold about halfway. Bake until tops are puffed and set and bottoms are well browned, about 12 minutes.

4. Cool slightly, then unmold. Serve warm.

Each madeleine: 74 calories; 3 grams protein; 4 grams carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 5 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 31 mg. cholesterol; 133 mg. sodium.

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Chutney-duck bites

Total time: 40 minutes

Servings: 12 to 16

Note: Duck legs in confit are available at Nichole’s in South Pasadena and at Surfas in Culver City.

2 duck legs in confit

6 tablespoons melted butter, divided

Tabasco to taste

1/2cup mango chutney

1/2cup creme fraiche

12 thin slices white toasting-type bread

1/2 cup chopped chives

1. Heat the broiler. Lay the duck legs on a foil-lined broiler pan and place the pan as far as possible from the heat element. Cook until the skin is crisp and the meat is heated through, about 13 minutes. Remove the duck legs from the broiler, wrap loosely in the foil and let them stand until just cool enough to handle.

2. Reduce the oven heat to 300 degrees. Remove the skin from the duck legs. Cut the crispiest sections into a fine dice and set aside. Roughly shred the meat and place it in a blender or food processor along with any fat from the foil.

3. Add 3 tablespoons melted butter and process until not quite smooth, adding another tablespoon of butter as needed to make a spreadable mixture. Stir in the reserved diced skin. Season well with Tabasco. Keep warm.

4. Remove the crusts from the bread and cut each slice into 4 triangles. Lay on an ungreased baking sheet and toast in the oven for 7 to 9 minutes, until crisp but not browned.

5. Melt the remaining butter. Brush each triangle of bread lightly with melted butter. Spread with a little of the duck mixture, then top with a squiggle of chutney and one of creme fraiche. Sprinkle lavishly with chives and serve immediately.

Each serving: 135 calories; 6 grams protein; 9 grams carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 8 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 35 mg. cholesterol; 86 mg. sodium.

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Spiced roasted almonds

Total time: 2 hours

Servings: 4

Note: This can be easily doubled. Allow plenty of time -- the cooling step in a brown paper bag is crucial.

1 cup whole blanched almonds

1 1/2teaspoons almond oil

1 1/2teaspoons dried rosemary

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne

Kosher salt

1. Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Combine the almonds and oil in medium bowl and toss with a rubber spatula until coated. Crush the rosemary with mortar and pestle (or crumble with fingertips) and add it to the almonds with the cayenne and one-half teaspoon salt. Mix well.

2. Spread the nuts on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, tossing or stirring every 10 minutes, until light brown and crisp to the core.

3. Immediately pour the nuts into a brown paper bag and add one-half teaspoon or more salt. Toss to coat well. Seal bag tightly and let stand at least 1 hour and preferably 2 hours before serving.

Each serving (before salting): 236 calories; 8 grams protein; 7 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams fiber; 20 grams fat; 0 saturated fat; 0 cholesterol; 0 sodium.

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Smoked salmon tramezzini

Total time: 10 minutes

Servings: 4 to 6

Note: Peeled and thinly sliced cucumber can substitute for the watercress.

24 thin slices white bread

1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) creme fraiche

1/2pound wild smoked salmon

Lemon juice to taste

Freshly ground white pepper to taste

1 bunch watercress, stems removed

Chervil for garnish (if desired)

1. Wash the watercress and dry it well. Cut the crusts off the bread. Lay 12 slices out on a work surface. Spread each with creme fraiche. Cover each slice completely with smoked salmon. Sprinkle each with a little lemon juice and season well with white pepper. Cover the surface of each with a thick layer of watercress leaves.

2. Spread the remaining bread slices with creme fraiche. Press onto the watercress. Cut into triangles or fingers. Decorate with chervil leaves, if desired. Cover with plastic wrap if not serving immediately.

Each serving: 328 calories; 14 grams protein; 32 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams fiber; 16 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 34 mg. cholesterol; 1,117 mg. sodium.