An Easy Vegetable Salad Recipe Using Sliced Parmesan Cheese

Another Great Recipe using Parmigiano-Reggiano

(Parmesan) Cheese

This is a colorful salad that is light and refreshing. It is easy to prepare and is nice to serve during the summer as a salad course or a midday treat with a nice Italian wine.

Prep time 30 min. Serves 6

Ingredients

1 lb of cleaned beets without the tops

3 oranges peeled and separated or sliced

12 leaves from hearts of Romaine lettuce

1/3 cup of cleaned walnuts

3 Tbsp. of orange juice

1 tsp. of lemon juice

1/4 tsp. of salt or to taste

3 Tbsp. of walnut oil or extra virgin olive oil

2-3oz of Parmigiano-Reggiano (Parmesan) cheese slivered as thin as possible (use a vegetable peeler)

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Prep and Cooking

1) Boil or steam the beets until they are tender, let cool and then pat dry and slice thin

2) Place 2 leaves of Romaine lettuce on each plate

3) Arrange the beet slices and the orange sections in an overlapping pattern over the lettuce
4) Place the walnuts in the oven and toast until slightly golden brown (about 10 min.)
5) When ready finely chop the walnuts and sprinkle over the beets and oranges

6) Whisk the orange and lemon juices with the salt. Then add the walnut or olive oil while continuing to whisk the mixture.

7) Pour the dressing over each salad

8) Arrange the cheese slivers in a circle around the outside of the salad

9) Season with fresh ground black pepper

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This wonderful salad is complimented by a glass of wine like Chianti Riserva, Barolo or Barbaresco

Hirtenkase A Great German Mountain Style Cheese

I took a Rhine river cruise in Germany with my family and enjoyed it immensely. While on board ship the topic of Oktoberfest was brought up several times by our fellow shipmates. German beer was the focal point of most of these conversations but I was surprised to hear several people rave about German cheeses. Now being a cheese monger I am always looking for new and exciting cheeses to sample and hopefully to import back into the US. Our host and guide, after hearing our cheese conversation provided us with a truly great cheese named Hirtenkase which translates loosely as shepherd cheese.

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Details: Hirtenkase is produced during the summer months in the Allgau Mountains of Germany. The dairy farmers in this region allow their cows to eat only fresh mountain grass during the summer and hay during the winter, no silage, therefore they produce a very high grade of milk. This system of pure grazing and cheese production is similar to the one employed by Swiss dairy farmers. Hirtenkase can truly be considered a great mountain style cheese and can proudly stand next to Gruyere, Emmentaler and Fontina Val D'Aosta. 

Flavor: When aged it has a hard outer rind and the interior paste is hard and flinty with an orange tint. It has a slight citrus/ apple aroma and nutty and butterscotch flavor that lingers on the palate, I personally think that it has a much deeper flavor than French Comte 

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The Hirtenkase cheese that is produced in the summer starts arriving in small quantities beginning in late September and its availability ebbs during late March, so now would be a great time to search it out. Hirtenkase is a great table cheese and can be served with grapes , figs, dates and nuts. Also try shaving it over a salad for a nice appetizer, melted over vegetables or for fondue. Check out this link for a great Hirtenkase recipe .

As for wine pairings serve it with a good Merlot or any big red German wine . It also goes well with good hearty German beers during Oktoberfest.

8 Quick Gourmet Panini Recipes

Panini

What is a panini you may ask. Well it is really just a grilled sandwich, but it can become much more if you put some thought into its ingredients. The limits are only the ones which you impose on yourself. Try a goat cheese with sliced fruit panini for a midday snack. There is no end to the possibilities! Now for just for a few basics for making a panini.
Ideally I would suggest that you purchase a panini grill or panini press as it will make your life easier if you plan to make paninis more than just a few times. Frying them on a skillet works but can become a bit messy when trying to flip them over and the cooking time will be a bit longer.

When selecting a panini grill try to find one where you can regulate the heat and the pressure on the sandwich. Also look for one that will allow you to take off the grates so clean up will go smoothly.

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Try to use a bread like ciabatta, a French baguette or thick crusty Italian bread cut down the middle. The idea is to have just enough bread so that your ingredients don't squirt out or that your bread is so thick that you only notice the bread. Then brush on a bit of olive oil on the outside of the bread before you grill it, add your sandwich ingredients and grill away!

Here are a few of our favorite paninis try them if you like or start creating paninis with your own ideas.

Set Your Grill at 375 degrees and just enough pressure to compact the slices of bread. For the following combinations feel free to use any type of bread you like.

1) Roasted Ham, Sonoma Dry Jack Cheese spicy mustard

2) Serrano Ham, Idiazabal cheese, and sun dried tomato pesto

3) Madrange French Ham, organic Morbier cheese, and Dijon mustard

4) Herbed Salami, Ossau Iraty cheese and basil pesto

5) Soppressata, Pecorino Tuscano cheese, and roasted red pepper pesto

6) Finocchiona, Taleggio cheese and cilantro chutney

7) Herbed Salami, Pecorino Tuscano cheese, and sun dried tomato pesto

8) Mozzarella, tomato, avocado, romaine lettuce and roasted red pepper pesto