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Thanksgiving appetizer: the cheese plate
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Cheese Plate - Italian Style for Thanksgiving
Cheese plates are the perfect appetizer for Thanksgiving Day. You are not bound by tradition to serve pumpkin, turkey, sweet potatoes or cranberries. The appetizer can be as creative as you wish. It does not need a stove top or an oven.
The cheeses I've selected are best served at room temperature, so you may organize your platter 1-2 hours ahead of time, cover and ignore until your guests arrive. Italian cheeses were always the appetizer of choice before every holiday in the homes of my extended family. No one was satisfied unless you came to the table already sated.
My cheeses were selected with the help of the Cheese Specialist, Dexa Franks at Kowalski's in White Bear Lake. They include: an aged, slightly nutty-flavored asiago, a truffle-spiked boschetto, some creamy, tangy goat cheese, a pungent gorgonzola, milky, melt-in-your-mouth taleggio, a sharp piave and soft-as-clouds fresh mozzarella. The cheese plate was enhanced by fruits, condiments, nuts and an assortment of pickled vegetables. Thin slices of Italian bread, rosemary crackers and thin water crackers round out the plate.
On Thanksgiving, I may add some other Italian cheeses: bel paese, fontina, provolone. My goat cheese will be from Celebrity International (found at Kowalski's, there's a peek at it in the slide show). It's covered with sweet-tart cranberries with cinnamon and adds a touch of the traditional American Thanksgiving to the cheese plate. Some roasted red peppers would pair well with the provolone. The sweet chocolate will come in the way of chocolate turkeys.
I served all with Kenwood's Chardonnay - moderately priced at $10.99 - the Chardonnay was full-bodied enough to stand up to the cheeses. A Sangiovese would pair well with the asiago, mozzarella and piave. The creamy taleggio is meaty enough to pair with a Pinot Noir.
Some grand cheese plate pairings include: sun-dried tomatoes with fresh mozzarella, taleggio with balsamic vinegar jelly or Duhaime fruit spread, goat cheese with the jelly and fruit spread, asiago with Sicilian olives, boschetto with marinated vegetables.
The ingredients can be found at these places: Cheeses, kale, rosemary crackers from Panzenella, balsamic vinegar jelly, grapes, raspberries from Kowalski's. Berry fruit spread by Duhaime from Byerly's (they also have an excellent cheese department), Victoria's Fancy Giardeniera (vegetables marinated in vinegar) and Sicilian olives from Morelli's.
Wines: Check out Morelli's. There is a good selection, many wines are sold at cost and the link will take you to their weekly coupons enabling you to save even more. And while you're there pick up the Sicilian olives, a hunk of true Parmigiano-Reggiano and some of the best ravioli in the Twin Cities.
You might also like: Creating the Italian Cheese Platter
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