Anniversary? Birthday? I wasn’t sure what to call it, but Roquefort is celebrating a milestone this year. That most iconic of French blue cheeses received the first AOC—appellation d’origine controlee—100 years ago this summer.
Read moreGold-Standard Manchego
I love aged sheep cheeses so much that even a mediocre one will tempt me. But a sublime Manchego like the one pictured here makes me greedy. I don’t want to share it; I want to hoard it. You have the Brie, honey. The Manchego’s all mine. Of course, I also want every cheese lover to know about it, and buy it, so that we keep the shipments coming. Manchego is Spain’s top-selling cheese by a mile, with 61 different producers. But if you want to taste the gold standard, in my view it’s this one.
Read moreWhen in Naples…
Opting to follow the crowds instead of the guidebooks, my husband and I ended up in a packed working-class lunch spot in Naples a few years ago. After a glance around, we decided to have what everyone else was having: rigatoni in tomato sauce topped with a dollop of snow-white ricotta. Eyeing the other diners, we did what they did, stirring in the fluffy ricotta before diving in. The cheese made the tomato sauce so mellow and creamy. If you’re preparing pasta with tomato sauce in the weeks ahead, please try this technique. If your sauce also has eggplant, zucchini or sweet peppers, so much the better.
Read moreGrill This Cheese, Please
Receiving a new sheep cheese wrapped in grape leaves was all the excuse I needed to fire up the Green Egg. But receiving cooking instructions from the cheesemaker made the decision inevitable. “I recommend grilling it for 5 to 6 minutes, until it gives when you pick it up with tongs,” says the maker. “I love grilling peaches with it.”
Read moreTwo Salads for Cheese-Loving Moms
Doug and I celebrated a recent wedding anniversary with a brief getaway to California’s Anderson Valley and the delightful Boonville Hotel. The hotel’s chef, Perry Hoffman, is the grandson of Sally Schmitt, the founding chef of The French Laundry. Hoffman grew up in that legendary Napa Valley kitchen, but he now has his own place and his own style and it’s right up my alley. I savored every bite of our height-of-spring dinner, but of course the two cheesiest dishes made the biggest impression. If you’re the chef on Mother’s Day, consider adding one or both to the menu.
Read moreIt’s a Wrap
I’ve been enchanted by this dramatic spring appetizer forever, since first encountering it at a Persian restaurant in Berkeley. The restaurant closed eons ago but the memory lingers. A platter of sabzi khordan --which translates to “herbs for eating”—is omnipresent at Persian meals, I have learned, and it’s more about the herbs than the feta. But this is Planet Cheese, so there’s feta at the center of my sabzi khordan. A block of feta would be more traditional, but whipped feta spreads better. And that’s the idea: You take a piece of flatbread, slather it with feta, tuck in something crunchy like toasted walnuts and then a soft handful of mixed herbs. It’s magical.
Read moreGreen for a Day
I’ll be planting potatoes on St. Patrick’s Day and probably wearing something green. Alas, no Irish cheese board for dinner. My favorite Irish wheels—Gubbeen, Durrus, Coolea—are too hard to find these days. Their high prices make them slow movers at American cheese counters. But green cheese? I can do that. I adore this creamy feta dip, green from pistachios, cilantro and dill. You’ve seen it here before but I’m reprising it as a nod to the holiday and the imminent arrival of spring. I’ve heard raves from readers who’ve made it and hope you’ll soon join that club.
Read moreFeta Yet Again
Ever since a recipe for baked feta went viral on TikTok, social media won’t leave feta alone. TikTokkers seem to think they invented the idea of warm feta but tell that to a Greek. Flaky feta pies are ancient; what Greek grandma doesn’t make tiropita?
Read moreMissing Cheese is Back in Action
Well, cheese fans, the year is off to a great start. A beloved French cheese—one of my favorites—has returned to the U.S. after a five-year absence. To be honest, I had given up hope of ever putting it on a cheese board again, but I hadn’t realized its very survival was in doubt. Now, thanks to some out-of-the-box thinking, this magnificent sheep cheese is on more secure footing and has a future.
Read moreTruffle Cheese is the Answer
The question at our house last week was how to revive our flagging interest in cauliflower. I’ve been gardening forever, but I still haven’t learned that when you plant a dozen cauliflower seedlings at once, they all mature at once. I wasn’t sure I could get another cauliflower risotto past my husband unless I changed it up. So I did. With a little digging online, I turned up a new method that produced the creamiest risotto I’ve ever made. The truffled pecorino I had in the fridge put it over the top. I knew I’d nailed it when my husband amped up his usual praise—from “this is good, hon” to “this is really good, hon.” I couldn’t agree more.
Read more