On a visit to Provence many years ago I was introduced to the omelet as a dinner item. Visiting friends one deliciously lazy summer evening, we watched the sun sink lower in the sky and the pleasure craft return to the harbor over glasses of wine until we decided that we all could do with something to eat. Our host happily obliged by preparing a round of omelets filled with fresh herbs from his garden and just enough goat cheese to round out the flavor of the dish. Served up piping hot as the fragrant twilight of Southern France closed in around us, it has endured as one of my most pleasurable gastronomic memories from that trip.
Happily, upon returning home I discovered that the meal was one of those rare ones which can taste as good at home as they did while I was traveling. Ok, almost as good. There's just something about Provence.
There are two fun things about having omelets as a dinner item. First, you can fill them with just about anything you like. Sausage, sauteed vegetables, salmon -- you name it. I tend to lean towards the herb and cheese kind, like the herbed gruyere and tarragon, chive and goat cheese omelets found at epicurious.com. Omelets don't really even need a recipe, though -- whatever you have on hand to put in them will work. That's all my friend in Provence used: herbs from his garden and some leftover goat cheese.
The second fun thing about omelets at dinner is that they pair quite well with red wine. The wines of Provence matched quite well with my omelet, and can be interesting on their own as well. Made from grapes such as Mourvedre, Cinsault, Carignan, Grenache, and Syrah, they tend to be rustic with good fruit and ample tannins. Following this line of thought, wines from both the northern and southern Rhone would be good choices, as would bottles from the Languedoc-Roussilon further west along France's Mediterranean coastline. Just over the border into Spain, the Priorat region's best wines are produced from ancient Carignan and Grenache vines, and would be happy to accompany your omelet. In fact, most of Spain's red wines -- especially those made from the Tempranillo grape -- would be a good choice.
If you'd rather buy something made closer to home, look for any of the varieties listed above. Wines from the Sierra Foothills offer an interesting alternative to the ubitquous Napa bottlings. The Foothills region produces wines with a quality unique to that area -- terroir, if you will -- which is to me evocative of the distinctiveness of Provencal wines. Plus, their prices are typically very good.
If you come across a particularly interesting omelet/wine combination, let me know. I'm always looking for another excuse to have omelets in the evening.
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