The matzo brei I grew up with did not have cheese in it. Just eggs, soaked matzo, salt and pepper. That was my mother’s way, and she wasn’t inclined to experiment. But I’m in charge now. At my house, matzo brei can have green onions and asparagus, and it most definitely can have cheese.
Matzo brei (rhymes with try) is the Passover dish I look forward to most. Why I don’t make it year-round I can’t say. I often add fresh chives, parsley or dill, but it only recently occurred to me to add cheese. Genius. Any cheese that melts well will work, but I particularly like Point Reyes Farmstead Toma here because it smells like cultured butter and melts like a dream. Choose a hot pepper jack or chipotle Cheddar if you want to spice it up. Replace the asparagus with sautéed mushrooms, if you like. It’s all good.
Matzo Brei with Asparagus and Cheese
For me, the ideal matzo brei has some crusty, browned bits interspersed with creamy egg. Cook on medium-high if you want more crunchy parts or on medium-low if you prefer the dish softer and creamier.
Fragrant and meltable: Point Reyes Toma
6 asparagus spears
3 sheets of matzo
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill, plus more for garnish
Scant 1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 green onions, white and pale green parts only, thinly sliced
2/3 cup (about 2 ounces) grated cheese, such as Point Reyes Toma, Cheddar or other good melting cheese
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Bend the asparagus spears in both hands until they snap at the point where the spears become tough; discard the tough ends. Remove the pretty tips, then slice the remainder on the diagonal about ½ inch wide. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and prepare an ice bath. Boil the asparagus for 2 minutes, then drain and immediately chill in the ice water. Drain again and pat dry.
Bring a tea kettle of water to a boil. Break the matzo into smaller pieces, roughly 12 pieces per sheet. They don’t need to be identical. Put them in a sieve set over the sink. Slowly pour the boiling water over the matzo, tossing the pieces with a spatula until they are all well moistened. Let stand for about 5 minutes.
Beat the eggs in a large bowl with the dill, salt and pepper. Whisk in the green onions, the asparagus and the cheese. Stir in the softened matzo and toss with a spatula until it absorbs all or most of the egg and all the ingredients are well distributed.
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the butter and swirl to coat. When the butter foams and begins to smell nutty, add the egg mixture, spreading it evenly. Let it cook without stirring for about 30 seconds so it browns on the bottom, then flip the mixture and begin to break it up with a spatula. Lower the heat if necessary to prevent over-browning. Cook as you would for scrambled eggs, stirring and flipping until all the egg is cooked to your taste. Divide among 2 plates, garnish with chopped dill and serve immediately.
Serves 2 generously
Maybe you heard that the Biden Administration is rolling back the punitive tariffs on European cheese that the Trump Administration levied in late 2019—the result of a cat fight between Boeing and Airbus. About time. The collateral damage to cheesemakers and cheese lovers just wasn’t fair.
I checked in with Stephanie Ciano of World’s Best Cheese, a major importer of fine cheese from Europe, to see how the tariff rollback might affect future pricing.
“I think we should see a drop in some prices,” Ciano told me via e-mail. “It will take a little time, though, because on our existing inventory, we did have to pay the 25% tariff. It will also be a relief for producers that have been trying to subsidize the burden because they were afraid of being priced out of the market.”
Ciano said her company will likely be resuming imports of cheeses they had dropped because the tariff made them prohibitively expensive: artisan cheeses from the U.K. and the fabulous cheeses from Italy’s Casa Madaio, for example.
On the other hand, the freight situation is still a mess. Air freight costs twice what it did pre-pandemic, says Ciano. Shipping schedules are erratic because of Covid-related staffing shortages at the docks. Then the domino effect kicks in. Containers don’t get off-loaded promptly, so they don’t return to Europe on time.
“There’s a massive bottleneck of goods sitting in Europe,” reports Ciano. “And we are not out of the woods with the pandemic. Just recently, a virus outbreak in southern Italy caused a shortage of buffalo milk mozzarella because of factory shutdowns.”
Of course, in the context of the pandemic’s human toll, mozzarella hardly matters. But you can understand why Ciano and her colleagues are hopeful for a more normal fourth quarter.