Last weekend I was on Twitter bemoaning a craving for goat cheese and sundried tomatoes (no, I am neither pregnant nor smoking a little ganja). Specifically, I was hungry for a little concoction that Whole Foods has sold in the past. A small round of goat cheese covered with sundried tomatoes.
Lucky for me, my husband was in the area of the closest Whole Foods (about two hours away) but sadly, they were OUT of this miracle food. But again, lucky for me, he rocks and he got the “recipe” for goat cheese with sundried tomatoes and brought it home to me, along with a round of plain goat cheese. Seriously, he’s the best husband, and not just because he brings me cheese.
In reality, he didn’t bring me the recipe, just a list of the ingredients, so I did some trial and error, and what I’m sharing with you below is in no way exact or probably perfect. Don’t be afraid to change the proportions to suit your own tastes, this is a very forgiving recipe.
Making this, I found myself wishing I was a whiz at food photography (and had one of those nice dSLR cameras I’ve been pricing) because the finished product is easy to prepare and elegant to look at.
Ingredients:
A round of goat cheese. Mine was 1/3 lb. You can use bigger/smaller, no problem. Just make more of the below.
Sundried tomatoes in oil. I used 4-5 tomatoes that I pulled from the jar (btw, if you’re looking for these in your store, they’re usually by the pickled items)
1-2 Tbsp good olive oil (I used the oil I usually reserve for bread dipping)
1/2- 1 Tbsp fresh parsley
1/4 – 1/2 Tbsp fresh dill
1 Tbsp green onion
Kosher salt to taste
fresh ground pepper to taste
Directions:
Throw all of the ingredients EXCEPT the goat cheese in a mini food processor. What do you mean you don’t have a mini food processor? They’re awesome! Here’s mine. I use it probably four or five times a week.
Anyway! Combine ingredients in food processor for 15 seconds until tomatoes and onions are finely chopped. Put goat cheese round on plate or bowl (you can slightly warm it in microwave for like…five seconds, but it’s not necessary) and top with tomato mixture. Alternately, you can put tomato mixture in a separate container for serving, for those guests/picky people in your house who like goat cheese but not tomatoes.
Serve with crostini, melba toast or crackers. To eat: spread goat cheese on crostini and then desired amount of tomato mixture. Put in mouth. Chew slowly. Close eyes in bliss. Moan. Sip a glass of good wine. Repeat.
A couple of notes: both dill and onion can quickly be overpowering, but sundried tomatoes also have a very strong flavor, so don’t be afraid of the dill and onion. What I would suggest is adding a low amount of each and then tasting, and adding until you like the taste.
This recipe is so easy to make up within seconds, that if you find you’ve run out of the tomato mixture, you can easily whip up more without worry. And the leftovers can be refrigerated and snacked on for several weeks.