If Manchego isn’t Spain’s top-selling cheese by a large margin, I’d be surprised. We all know Manchego. It’s a dependable—and often exceptional—aged sheep cheese. But Spain has a much bigger story to tell. Its goat cheeses, fresh and aged, can stand up to Europe’s best, but they don’t get much shelf space in American cheese shops. One of my favorite Spanish goat cheeses, I was pleased to learn, is also the favorite of Spanish cheese authority Enric Canut ,who told me years ago in an interview that he thought it was his country’s finest.
Read moreRaclette Your Way
When I asked Swiss cheese importer Caroline Hostettler whether she ate raclette as a child in Switzerland, she had no trouble resurrecting a memory. “Everyone had raclette machines at home but us,” recalled Hostettler, sounding still a bit aggrieved several decades later. Her mother refused to make it (she preferred fondue), so the annual raclette at an aunt’s house was the highlight of the year. Hostettler still remembers being almost overcome with excitement.
Read moreBetter When Shared
My husband, Doug, and I have shared a cheese board most nights of our married life—which is to say, for almost 38 years. It’s rarely elaborate—sometimes it’s just a wedge of cheese—but I’m convinced that the ritual has contributed to the success of our marriage. Sharing a cheese board is an excuse to slow down, pour another glass of wine and tell another story from our day. This Valentine’s Day, if you’re staying at home, you can test my theory. For this appetizer board, I’ve warmed a little goat cheese crottin (Vermont Creamery Bijou) and surrounded it with some favorite savory nibbles.
Read moreWinter’s Greek Salad
We are approaching the one-year anniversary of the TikTok baked feta and tomato pasta, the recipe that caused an international feta stampede. Google Trends, which tracks search volume, shows a near-vertical spike twelve months ago in the number of searches for “feta pasta.” As a feta fanatic, I’m a little saddened to see that the line crashed as quickly as it rose. But maybe the craze introduced a lot more people to this endlessly useful cheese.
Read moreCrackers by You!
You may recall that I went crazy for these crackers last year. They’re from Top Seedz, a small company in Buffalo, New York. Many of you told me you bought some and found them as irresistible as I did. Now you can make them. At home. So they’re as fresh as can be. Top Seedz has developed a packaged mix for home bakers, and it really works. I made the crispy shards pictured above.
Read moreAlsatian Tart is Crisp and Cheesy
When the recent cream cheese shortage sent me scrambling for alternatives, I discovered a dreamy spreadable goat cheese from Norway. Maybe you’re already a fan of Snøfrisk. Or maybe, like me, you’ve noticed its wedge-shaped package next to other fresh cheeses but never bothered to give it a try. I’m making up for lost time now. I love this stuff. It’s perfect for tarte flambée, the paper-thin Alsatian pizza, which is getting to be a New Year’s Eve tradition at my house.
Read moreChange It Up with Cheesy Bread Pudding
Of course I like cornbread dressing with roast turkey. What native Texan doesn’t? But I like this focaccia bread pudding more. The focaccia soaks up most of the custard, so it’s soft in the center but crunchy on top. I add sauteed leeks and wild mushrooms (crimini work fine) and a generous sprinkle of herbes de Provence. Creamy nuggets of goat cheese fill in the gaps. If you’re open to a newcomer on your Thanksgiving table, I hope you’ll give this luscious side dish a try.
Read moreLet’s Do Lunch
Thank goodness my garden is churning out tomatoes because all I want for lunch these days is dakos. That’s the Cretan rendition of what Italians call bruschetta. In Crete they use rock-hard rusks, first softening them in water, then drenching them in olive oil and heaping them with grated tomato and feta. No wonder the Cretans live forever. In my view, this is just about the tastiest and most wholesome quick lunch you can make.
Read moreWandering the Backroads
My dream job—and maybe yours, too—would be traveling the backroads of Europe as a Cheese Explorer, hunting for undiscovered cheeses at local farmers’ markets and in off-the-beaten-path bistros. I don’t get to do this but, fortunately, others do. That’s how American distributors keep receiving exquisite, unusual wheels from Europe that are hardly known there. This goat’s milk beauty comes from a scenic part of western France called Venise Verte (“Green Venice”). Did you even know this lush, canal-laced region existed? I didn’t, but I intend to go at the first opportunity. Maybe I’ll stumble on more goat cheeses as fabulous as this one.
Read moreStar Power
This little French beauty has a charming name and a touching back story. But more important, it’s delightful and just right for warm-weather cheese boards. Add a leafy green salad with lots of chopped fresh chives, a baguette and a bottle of Sancerre. Acclaimed affineur Hervé Mons had a hand in this cheese’s creation, so you know it’s sublime.
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