After months of tomatoes and zucchini, I’m ready for winter squash. Kabocha is my favorite, but butternut squash is much easier to hack into and to peel. I like to roast thick slices until they’re caramelized and then balance the sweetness with something tart and tangy. Feta to the rescue, along with pomegranate seeds, pepitas, Aleppo pepper and yogurt. Creamy and crunchy, warm and cool, sweet and tart. It’s all there in this autumn side dish. Add a roast chicken or a bulgur pilaf and dinner’s ready.
Read morePerfect Cheese at a Price to Like
Given the eye-popping prices at the cheese counter these days, the bargains stand out even more. Some (not all) of the selections selling for $35 to $40 a pound are fabulous, but none of them is better than the beauty pictured above. I paid $19.99 a pound for this charmer, a raw-milk wheel made in Switzerland by a single family with milk from their neighbors. I’ve admired this cheese for a long time, but these days I’m blown away by the astonishing quality for the price.
Read moreBig Win for a Glorious Goat Cheese
I am overjoyed to see aged goat cheese getting more attention from America’s cheesemakers. Personally, I can’t work up much enthusiasm for another fresh, rindless chèvre—we have plenty of those—but a new firm, nutty goat cheese with a natural rind, made in the U.S.A., gives us more choice in a slender category. The blue ribbon-winning beauty pictured above isn’t new—it debuted maybe 10 years ago—but it’s tasting better than ever. And I am noticing a few more entries in this slim niche. Many people tell me they don’t like goat cheese, but in my experience, everybody likes this type.
Read morePimento Cheese Gets a Twist
I have a perfectly good pimento cheese recipe but a cook can always use another, especially if it’s from the guy who makes the Obama family’s’ Thanksgiving pies. Brian Noyes is an acclaimed baker and café owner in rural Virginia. But he’s not a Southerner by birth so he gets away with tweaking tradition. His pimento cheese has a couple of ingredients I’ve never seen in this cult classic, but not being a Southerner either, I keep an open mind. I met Noyes recently at a party to celebrate his new cookbook, and although the cakes his bakery provided were fabulous, I came home and made the book’s pimento cheese first.
Read moreWhat’s Up with Cheese Prices?
PPI by Industry | Cheese Manufacturing
Yet again I’m hyperventilating about the rising price of cheese. I handed over $50 for a piece last week, and it wasn’t that big. Who can spend this kind of money? I’m not blaming cheesemakers. I’m not blaming retailers. I’m not blaming anybody. But I wanted to understand why some cheeses cost 30 to 50 percent more than they did a year ago.
Read moreBritish Cheddar Goes Green
The world’s first carbon-neutral Cheddar is landing in U.S. stores this month, just in time for your first autumn cheese board. It’s made in the English county of Somerset, where most of the best British Cheddars originate. If you’ll be watching the funeral ceremonies for Queen Elizabeth II on September 19, you might want a little British snack for the occasion. Alas, this new arrival is not the Cheddar that holds the Royal Warrant —we don’t get that one in the U.S.—but it’s easy to love and from a producer with big environmental goals.
Read moreBefore You Travel with Cheese, Know the Regs
Fromagerie Laurent Dubois, Paris/Photo: Susan Sturman
Ever wondered what cheeses you can legally bring back from Europe? Would you take a risk on any of the French cheeses pictured above? Maybe you would bury a couple of beauties in your suitcase and “forget” to declare them? I’ve covered this ground before, but with so many people traveling internationally again, it’s worth a refresher. Even a cheesemonger friend of mine who’s headed to Switzerland soon didn’t know the regs.
Read moreGive That Cheese a Bath
Mozzarella is a flavor sponge. It readily soaks up good stuff like extra virgin olive oil and garlic, so why not give it a little bath on Labor Day? Ciliegine, the cherry-size balls, are perfect for marinating. They’re bite sized, you can serve them whole so they don’t release whey, and it doesn’t take long to infuse them with seasonings. (Say chili-eh-GEE-neh.) I add dried oregano, parsley, Aleppo pepper and capers, but you do you. Taken to a potluck or at your own backyard barbecue, these juicy, garlicky one-bite wonders will vanish before the burgers are done.
Read moreBaked Lemon Ricotta is a Slice of Puglia
Is it cheese…or is it cake? Or is it cheesecake? Baked lemon ricotta is a modern creation produced by a small family enterprise in Puglia, but there’s plenty of tradition behind it. In Sicily and Puglia, shepherds long ago figured out that they could bake their ricotta in their wood-burning oven and extend its lifespan. Thirty-five years ago, the Donvito family took the practice in a new direction, creating a line of sweet, sliceable baked ricottas flavored with lemon, coffee, cocoa and pistachio. The lemon version—the bestseller by far—turns up at American cheese counters occasionally and I’ve been eyeing it, but not trying it, for years.
Read morePeaches, Pistachios and Cheese, Oh My!
It’s peach week in Napa Valley. My husband and I were struggling to keep up with the fruit from our own tree when a friend gave me some of hers. I was feeling a bit desperate about all our softening peaches when I saw this glistening conserve in my Facebook feed. The woman who posted it, an acquaintance who has attended my cheese classes, said she made it to go with cheese. Bingo. She sent the recipe, I made it immediately and now I’m eating the conserve straight from the jar. What a super companion for fresh chèvre or aged goat cheese (that’s Stepladder Creamery Ventana in the image), Cheddar, Gouda or blue cheese. In fact, if there’s a cheese this divine conserve won’t complement, I can’t think of it.
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