Saturday, October 16, 2010

Roman Cheese

This is my version of a recipe for spiced cheese that goes back a couple of millenia. I used to buy a similar product from the Antiqua Culinaria Romana / Castra-Rota at our local market on Saturday mornings, but they stopped showing up (for reasons I haven’t heard). Anyway, I missed their cheese balls, went to the Latin sources, and tried my own adaptation. Here’s where we are now:

Put into a food processor
  • 10.5 oz Ile de France spiced goat cheese buchette (plain will do, but it’s not quite as good)
  • 6 large cloves garlic (~1/2 medium head), mashed
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 stalk celery (with leaves if possible; thinly slice the celery before putting it into the processor to avoid having strings)
Process until smooth.

Add:
  • ~2 Tbsp EVOO to texture & taste
It’s quite tasty.

2 comments:

Breville Girl said...

wow thats a lot of garlic - which makes this appealing to me as I love the stuff. simple yet intriguing recipe...might just give it a shot myself.

St. Izzy said...

For a Food Fest at school, I made a batch with a lower percentage of garlic, and it was a big hit with normal people.

Here's what I did:

Put into a food processor,

six medium cloves of garlic
the leafy greens from a whole stalk of celery
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp black pepper
1 ½ tsp ground coriander

Grind until everything is finely chopped.

Add 4 packages of herbed goat cheese, 4 oz each (16 oz total).

Process until smooth.

Use a spatula to scrape the sides & top so as to incorporate all the little bits that have escaped.

Add ~ 4 Tbsp EVOO.

Process until smooth again, then taste and adjust spices to taste.

Put into a 3 cup container and refrigerate.

Enjoy as a spread.