The proof is in the pudding: ramp/green garlic/scallion pudding souffle

I have written a related piece on green garlic souffle, and this one should not be taken as supplanting it. Well, maybe it should. You make the choice. Compare and contrast.
I HAVE written about how the fear and loathing of souffles is overstated. They are very easy to do. In that case, I'm talking about what I regard as simple, light dessert souffles. The type of souffle I write about here, is more sturdy and substantial. It's a nice solid lunch, or perhaps a good way to start a meal. It's truly a good way to start a meal in the sense of making you want to eat more after you've finished it.
This time around, I made it using ramps, those harbingers of spring that stink up your kitchen in the best and worst possible way. It works equally well with green garlic, or scallions or any of the members of the garlic/onion family. You could probably do this with chives as well, although Annalena wonders why you would want to. She finds chives to be the equivalent of green confetti: no taste.
You will also find a step here that is contrary to everything that you've learned about souffles, even from Annalena: you're going to butter your ramekins before you put the batter in.
The reason for this, is that by buttering the container, you are able to knock out the pudding souffle and serve it out of the container. The "giveback" here is that the souffle will not rise very high at all. If you do not butter the interior of that ramekin, then you will get a higher souffle, but you and your friends will be eating out of the container it's in. That's really your call.

Also, this version is heavy, because ricotta is heavy, and I use a lot of it - double what is recommended. The souffle still cooks, and it tastes deceptively light, but you are giving away some height again. It comes down to lightness versus substantiality. Your call. Now, let's cook.

You start by melting 5 tablesoons of butter in a saucepan, over medium heat, and when it's melted, stirring in 3 tablespoons of all purpose flour. Use your whisk, and combine this for about a minute. Have a cup of milk handy, and whisk that in, bit by bit. Lower your heat. Most recipes say to cook this for ten minutes or so, but I find that too long. In the course of 6-7 minutes, you will see this mass (which is your bechamel sauce), go from slightly thick, to thick, to something akin to wall paper paste, as it follows your whisk or spoon around the pot. When the mass has become rather thick and moves in a heady mass, you're done with it up to now. You COULD, if you want to, stir in some salt, some fresh herbs some mustard (powder or standard), paprika, whatever you like.

Put this over to the side, off the heat, and separate four large eggs. Stir the yolks into this, one at a time, until they're incorporated, and then add anywhere from 4-8 ounces of ricotta. I used goat ricotta because that's what I had. As I have said, many times, don't use the awful stuff that ends with an "o". Now taste. I think you will want salt. Maybe you won't. If you substitute dryer, saltier cheeses, for all or part of the ricotta, you may not want to. And yes, you can substitute cheeses, whichever ones you want.

Now, apart from this, chop up about a cup of the green of your choice. Put this in a half cup of water, with a tablespoon or so of olive oil, and cook it slowly, until the greens have broken down. This will take about five minutes. Drain the liquid, which you MUST save for a soup or something , and if you like, puree the greens. (I never do). Stir them into the bechamel sauce.

If you are so inclined, you can now stop and put this away and come back to it at another point in time. When you are ready, however, preheat your oven to 400 degrees, and whip up the egg whites until they are just stiff. (My recipe says that a stand mixer whips them too hard. I do not believe t his).

Anyway, move that white sauce mixture into a big bowl, and then carefully and gently stir the egg whites in, just until you have a uniform color, no longer. Evenly apportion this stuff into your ramekins. I cannot tell you how many to use, because I do not know how big your ramekins are. In any event, you want them to be half full, whether you've buttered them or not.

Put them on a baking sheet, move them to the oven, and let them bake for 20 minutes or so. As I wrote above, they will rise high, or not, depending on whether or not you buttered the ramekins. When you take them out, if you have not buttered the bowls, then you can serve them immediately. You can serve them immediately if you DID butter them, but if you would like to, you can cool these, and with oven mitts, turn them over and gently tap out the puddings, and put them on a plate with some mesclun or something like that.

For us, this served 3 people a nice sized lunch, which held us for most of the afternoon (we had the candy nibblies about 4-5 hours later). AS an appetizer, figure it's going to serve six.

If you're afraid of souffles, don't be. This one is so good it deserves to be made, again and again and again.