There's more to Mascarpone than just dessert.

Butternut squash ravioli with bacon and mascarpone

With fresh peaches

On toast... For example, cherry pecan bread

Simple, but Effective, and Delicious

Sometimes the simple dinners are the most satisfying.  Such as good bread and great cheese!

One my favorites happens to be semolina bread topped with something rich and creamy.  

Semolina bread is made with durum flour.  This is the same type of hard wheat that is often used for pasta.  It has a nutty flavor and a high level of gluten relative to the soft wheats generally used in pastry.   While pasta and semolina, such as the rosemary and sea salt one pictured here, are to my mind Italian  food items, there are other dishes from North Africa and the Middle East based on durum wheat too.  

In Algeria, semolina pancakes and bread (ghraif and kesra) come from the Berber culture in N. Africa.  Other Berber dishes using this wheat are flatbread (avrum) and dumplings (tikerbabin).  The culinary influence from North Africa extends into Sicily through semolina couscous similar to what we refer to Israeli couscous in North America.

But what to put on top of this wonderful bread? 

I say cheese!

 

Personally, I tend toward mild and creamy, especially if it is on a bread with extra savory elements like the rosemary sea salt.  Burrata and fresh ricotta are excellent all on their own.   However, bacon jam is a stellar addition to this pairing.

And what is burrata you ask?  They take fresh mozzarella and shred it, soak it in cream and then stuff that wonderful mixture inside a mozzarella ball.  This is usually done with a cows milk mozz rather than the buffalo milk one but you get all that moisture and rich flavor too!

I often use burrata for my cypress salad instead of mozzarella since the cheese holds the other elements together quite well.

Wishing For A Foodie Summer Vacation

Time for Slow Food to focus on cheese!  This summer is the big Slow Cheese event in Bra and with the Expo 2015 being held in Milan, this is a great time to be in Italy for foodies....

Today's Pairing Post

Yes - it is a another antipasti platter but with carefully selected items to be eaten together... Yum!

Charcuterie    Toscano salumi and Lonzino

Olives: Sicillian green

Bread:  Greatful Bread Everything Crackers

Cheese: Sbrinz - Raw cows milk from Switzerland; Mozzarella di Bufala from Italy; Fresh Chevre from Georgia; Rembrandt aged gouda from Holland

Today's Pairing Post -- grilled cheese with cornichons

Some things just say fall weather comfort food - like grilled cheese sandwiches!!

There are lots of ways to amp up the traditional combo of melted cheddar between buttery slices of bread - this just happens to be one of my personal favorites: add cornichons and use sunflower bread.

Antipasti - A Super Simple Dinner

Barely Buzzed, Point Reyes Toma -- Genoa salami, Bresaola, Saucisson Sec -- Semolina

Sometimes you just don't have the energy, time or inclination to "cook" dinner.  This does not mean that you can't still eat well. Avoid the fast food drive-thru or the frozen meal in your fridge....

Grab what is was easily available from the grocery and/or market ( I have an advantage here - hooray for working in a wonderful gourmet shop) and put together your own antipasti platter.

Cheese/Bread/Charcuterie/Wine - pick whatever combination sparks your imagination.  Or do like I do and ask the experts behind the counter.  I've got the cheese and bread under control but I like to see what the folks at the meat counter or the wine shop recommend.

And then for dessert; hot tea and fruit.    Plenty of the meal will be seasonal choices - particularly the cheese and fruit.   And the best part of this dinner?   You will probably have enough leftover for lunch the next day.  

For fall - pear and earl grey tea

Why I dislike food porn, but still post food pics

                                             

Let's start with full disclosure.  I do take food photos to put on Instagram and Twitter all the time.

Most of them are are work related and feature cheese.  And in my opinion, cheese is truly one of the most photogenic foods.   

The rest of my foodie pictures are usually either superbly plated desserts which are edible works of art or my own recipe creations which tend to look odd but creative.   My own cooking falls in the category of possibly the least photogenic of foods.  And I am ok with that because it tastes goood!

What I dislike so much are the folks who feel the need to interrupt the flow of a meal by taking pictures of each dish and posting them.  Not only it is rude to your fellow diners to force a pause for the photo but put your phone away already!  And then there are the numerous posts over one evening.  Does anyone really enjoy seeing course after course of someone else's meal on their computer screen?

I pledge right now to only blog and tweet a single plate from a meal and limit the pictures to truly amazing dishes.  Food as an artistic endeavor should be celebrated.   As someone who follows the Slow Food movement, I prefer to stay in the moment - to enjoy the food and the company; to appreciate the effort put into producing the ingredients and the complete composed meal I am eating; to be thankful for all that I have and for my good fortune to eat this well.

Nothing says Spring like baby goats... And great goat cheese!

That's right - it the time of year when the goats are kidding and the sheep have been lambing - Spring!

And after the baby animals comes all that fresh milk and fresh cheeses!   Creamy chevre; soft ripened rounds; lightly aged crottin, ash covered pyramids.

 Coming soon---- pictures of some of the baby goats from Capra Gia farm.  

Local goats provide wonderful fresh cheese!

Chocolate and .... ??

I know, I know...  Why would I need anything else besides the chocolate right?

I have been experimenting with cheese and choc combinations recently and used this Ibiza sea salt dark chocolate with Petit Basque.  The salt and sweet was a nice balance with the flavor or the sheep cheese.

But now as I eat the chocolate for dessert with some hot tea, it occurs to me that it would be great with plain popcorn.  Talk about a fantastic salty, sweet, gluten free - almost could be called healthy - treat!