Cheese, Glorious Cheese : More Than 75 Tempting Recipes for Cheese Lovers Everywhere

by Paula Lambert

• ISBN13: 9780743278959
• ISBN10: 074327895X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-02-06
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary

Cheese is one of the most popular foods around today, whether it's used in cooking, served as a course before or after meals, or just part of a healthy snack. As part of a nutritious diet, it's chock-full of calcium, which studies show might even aid in weight loss. Now, inCheese, Glorious Cheese!,cheese lovers everywhere can enjoy all the benefits of their favorite ingredient with more than seventy-five unique and tasty recipes, all using cheese.From soups and salads to entrees, appetizers, and even desserts,Cheese, Glorious Cheese!presents recipes that explore a wide array of varieties and flavors of cheese. Whether you're serving a casual lunch of Fennel, Orange, and Arugula Salad with Ricotta Salata or Corn Soup with Manchego Kernels, or a festive dinner of Beef Tenderloin with Roquefort-Mascarpone Sauce and Spinach Risotto Mold with Pecorino Romano, there are many options to please any cheese lover. In addition, there are side dishes such as Roasted Cauliflower with a Roquefort Crust, Eggplant Strata with Herbed Goat Cheese, and Lentils with Beets and Feta, as well as desserts like Toasted Pound Cake with White Cheddar Ice Cream and Apple Chutney and Gingery Pear Cheesecake.Included throughout are easy-to-follow tips for choosing, storing, and substituting cheeses, and recipes for vegetarians as well. Whether using local, store-bought, or artisanal cheeses, the recipes are user-friendly.Cheese, Glorious Cheese!is the perfect resource for easy-to-use and mouthwatering recipes for every occasion.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xi
Appetizers	p. 1
Goat cheese marbles	p. 2
Cherry tomato-bocconcini baubles	p. 4
Magical cheese canapes	p. 6
Mozzarella toasts with anchovy sauce	p. 7
Smoked salmon-cream cheese canapes	p. 9
Figs in a blanket	p. 10
Warm goat cheese with sun-dried tomato coulis	p. 12
Baked brie bombay	p. 14
Crostini with roasted vegetables and smoked mozzarella	p. 16
Queso paquitos with salsita verde	p. 18
Soups	p. 21
Mushroom soup with gruyere crust	p. 22
Cream of celery soup with pepato crisps	p. 24
Butternut squash bisque with gorgonzola cream and chipotle mascarpone	p. 26
Corn soup with manchego kernels	p. 28
Minestrone with grana padano croutons	p. 30
Tortilla soup	p. 32
Pasta e fagioli with parmigiano dust	p. 34
Chilled pea soup with minted mascarpone	p. 36
Chilled cucumber soup with feta, cranberries, and toasted pecans	p. 38
Gazpacho with chevre cream	p. 40
Salads	p. 43
Potato salad spiked with roquefort	p. 44
Cucumber, onion, and smoked gouda salad	p. 46
Fennel, orange, and arugula salad with ricotta salata	p. 48
Celery salad with blanca bianca and pecans	p. 50
Corn salad in radicchio cups	p. 52
Fruit salad with manouri and orange poppy seed dressing	p. 54
Black-eyed pea salad with chile caciotta	p. 56
Paula's chalupa: cheddar crisps topped with spinach salad	p. 58
Panzanella alla perugina with fresh mozzarella	p. 60
Watermelon and feta salad with mint	p. 62
Sandwiches	p. 63
Croissants filled with scrambled eggs, tomatoes, and dilled havarti	p. 64
Mexican ham and cheese tortas	p. 66
Crescenza in carrozza with an herb crust	p. 68
Grilled sirloin burgers with gorgonzola and heirloom tomatoes	p. 70
Grilled cheddar cheese sandwiches with chutney and watercress	p. 72
Pan-toasted panini with tapenade, sun-dried tomatoes, and smoked scamorza	p. 74
Lisa's portobello-taleggio panini	p. 76
Savory Tarts & Other Dishes	p. 79
Gouda bread pudding	p. 80
Spinach-feta tart	p. 81
Tomato tart with parmigiano-rosemary crust	p. 84
Maytag blue-potato-leek quiche	p. 86
Tamale tart	p. 88
Entrees	p. 91
Roasted asparagus frittata with a crown of sprouts	p. 92
Grilled tuna salad with queso oaxaca	p. 94
Shrimp skewers with smoked mozzarella and bacon	p. 97
Crab-avocado tostadas with queso blanco	p. 99
Halibut with a crispy potato-asiago crust	p. 102
Chicken salad with grapes, toasted almonds, and gorgonzola	p. 104
Ricotta-goat cheese-stuffed chicken breasts with fig conserve	p. 106
Parmigiano-crusted veal scaloppini with arugula salad	p. 108
Pork tenderloin with smoked cheddar-tortilla stuffing	p. 110
Grilled leg of lamb with dilled goat cheese sauce	p. 112
Grilled flank steak salad with queso fresco	p. 114
T-bone steak with parsley-pecorino pesto	p. 116
Beef tenderloin with roquefort-mascarpone sauce	p. 118
Pasta & Risottos	p. 121
Fettuccine with mascarpone and fresh herbs	p. 122
Fusilli with walnuts and cabrales	p. 124
Penne with cherry tomatoes, asparagus, and brie	p. 126
Trenette with basil pesto, potatoes, and marinated provolone	p. 128
Spaghetti with shrimp, scallops, and fresh mozzarella	p. 130
Black bean ravioli with green chile-goat cheese sauce	p. 132
Lasagne with porcini, spinach, sausage, and asiago	p. 135
Ricotta-filled crepes with artichoke-prosciutto ragout	p. 138
Spinach risotto mold with pecorino romano	p. 141
Cristiana's lemon risotto	p. 143
Side Dishes	p. 145
Baked tomatoes with puffy parmigiano crowns	p. 146
Calabacitas-squash, corn, and green chiles with longhorn cheese	p. 148
Southern vegetable medley with creole cream cheese	p. 150
Roasted cauliflower with a roquefort crust	p. 152
Scalloped potatoes and turnips with stilton	p. 154
Fontina mashed potatoes with caramelized onions	p. 156
Lentils with beets and feta	p. 158
Zucchini rolls with herbed ricotta and gruyere	p. 160
Eggplant strata with herbed goat cheese	p. 162
Desserts	p. 165
Semi-frozen orange delight	p. 166
Angel food-berry trifle	p. 168
Lemon blueberry dream	p. 170
Lime zabaglione with raspberries and floating mascarpone clouds	p. 172
Honey-ricotta napoleons with espresso dust	p. 174
Nutty chocolate cream cheese pie	p. 176
Caramelized banana cream tart with a chocolate crust	p. 178
Gingery pear cheesecake	p. 180
Toasted pound cake with white cheddar ice cream and apple chutney	p. 182
Apple pie with roquefort-walnut crust	p. 184
Acknowledgments	p. 187
Index	p. 189
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Introduction

In 1968 my friend Pam Carter Taylor and I decided that we just had to go to Italy to study Italian. We were both twenty-five years old, and that September we went off to study at L'Università per Stranieri in the charming little Umbrian hill town of Perugia. It was a great decision -- we had a wonderful time and made many lifelong friends during the years we spent there, and we learned to speak Italian!

Among my favorite activities were shopping at the local markets, cooking, and inviting friends for dinner parties -- not to mention enjoying the delicious local wines. To make ends meet, I tutored, did translations, and worked part-time at a well-known nearby winery, Cantine Lungarotti, all while diligently attending classes at the università, learning Italian, and studying art history. During the five years I spent in Perugia, I traveled a lot. I loved Italy and everything about it, from the art and architecture to the food and wine. The experience was more than fabulous, and it has flavored my life ever since. In fact, I can't imagine what my life would be like had I not lived in Italy.

In 1973 I left Perugia to come back to the United States and marry Jim Lambert. Back then he was studying for his master's degree, so we had long school holidays to spend going back to Italy to see all our friends. When Jim finished his studies, he founded a landscape architecture firm, and I helped him in the office and did volunteer work in Dallas.

In 1981 I decided that I wanted to have a business of my own. I thought that it should involve what I loved and enjoyed most: Italy and food. My first idea was pasta, but I soon learned that a pasta shop was about to open in Dallas, so my dream was dashed. That Christmas we went to Perugia to visit our friends the Bartoluccis for the holidays, and it was there that I came up with the idea of making Fresh Mozzarella. We were having lunch on the day we arrived, and I had a bite of Fresh Mozzarella. Instantly I knew -- it was Fresh Mozzarella that I missed in Dallas, and that no one else had thought of making. I seized on the idea and turned the trip into a mozzarella-fact-finding mission. By the time I got back to Dallas in late January 1982 I had apprenticed at a local Umbrian mozzarella factory and made plans to build my own little cheese factory in Dallas.

By August 1982 I had persuaded two friends to invest in my idea, found and renovated a little building in an old warehouse district near downtown Dallas, and fully equipped my new cheese factory. In August a professor of cheese came from Italy to teach us how to make Fresh Mozzarella. Before long, we were in business, and we called our venture Mozzarella Company.

It turned out that my idea of Mozzarella Company was quite innovative. I was the only small cheesemaker in my whole part of the country. Since 1985 we have won awards every year from the American Cheese Society for our outstanding cheeses. As the years have passed, we have expanded our repertoire and now produce over 20 different cheeses. Despite our growth, all our cheeses are still completely made by hand. Some are made from cow's milk and others from goat's milk. Many are Italian in inspiration, but others reflect the southwestern influence of Texas and the culinary style of this part of the country. Others have been influenced by my travels to Mexico, Greece, and France.

In 2000 Simon & Schuster published my first cookbook,The Cheese Lover's Cookbook and Guide.I loved writing that book, and since then I have enjoyed traveling around the United States teaching cooking classes using recipes from it. Each year my cookbook even takes me to France, where I take students for culinary classes at La Combe en Périgord in the Dordogne River Valley.

Since my first book was published, students, friends, and cheese lovers have asked when I would write another book. So it seemed only proper that another should follow my first book. And here it is:Cheese, Glorious Cheese!Time changes many things. New flavors, ideas, and influences surface; and I love experimenting and creating new dishes.

I hope that you will like my new recipes. They are all completely different from those in my first book, although I think you will sense my own unique style throughout both. I like to use pure, simple ingredients. I want their flavors to shine. The cooking techniques are easy and seldom complicated. Some recipes involve various steps for their preparation, but none are difficult. I think you will be able to create many, many wonderful meals combining recipes from this book.

One point I would like to make is that this book should be only a guide to cooking. Please use my recipes as a springboard to create your own unique dishes. Try substituting various cheeses in the recipes. As long as you adhere to replicating the texture of the original cheese in the recipe, you can't go wrong.

I am sure you will come up with some great dishes and memorable meals. Make notes on what you like. Write these in this book and really use it.

One other point I would like to mention is that I always cook using a small electronic scale. There are many different cheese shredders and graters on the market, and how a cheese is grated or shredded affects its measurement in cups. So, using a scale and checking the weight will ensure that you are using the exact amount of cheese designated in my recipes.

I hope you will enjoy my new book and try all my recipes. Let me know your favorites.

Paula Lambert

Copyright © 2007 by Paula Lambert

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Excerpted from Cheese, Glorious Cheese: More Than 75 Tempting Recipes for Cheese Lovers Everywhere by Paula Lambert
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.