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

Wanting to write about food

Everyday I want to learn and to write more about food.  It isn't easy when there is so much information floating around out there already.  What should I contribute to the global culinary conversation?  

I caught part of "Julie and Julia" on TV today and I recalled how much I enjoyed the books on which the movie is based.  And also it reminded me that if you want to write, so simply have to start somewhere and push forward.  

I don't need to have a large scale project as my focus.  I talk to people about food all day and that knowledge can be typed up too. So get ready for a whole lot of cheese articles coming your way!

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....

With a cherry on top

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

Gluten-free Apple Tart

My gluten-free baking experiment....  not because I'm trendy, or celiac - but because I am curious.

There is a lot of information out there about how many people actually have Celiac disease or may be gluten intolerant/sensitive.   However, it does seem to be the trendy self-diagnosis as well.   I too very briefly tried going gluten free for a while, but it is simply not possible for me.  First and foremost - I have my doubts about the nutritional value of going wheat free without a doctor telling me to do so and then helping me with the process.   With those doubts, the amount of concentration devoted to eliminating the offending grains became overbearing.  

Instead, I choose to enjoy everything I eat. Spending huge portions of my time and energy worrying about it takes all the joy out of a meal.  

I subscribe to the Slow Food principles of paying attention to my food and understanding where it comes from, but also to taking time to savor the cooking and the consuming of my meals.  Choose to appreciate the good food!

With all of that said, I still decided to try making a gluten free dessert....