Hello my friends from the meat-free side of spectrum! Here is a long overdue installment in our non-wimpy meat-free series, S/O/L/E Food Tuesday.

As regular readers know, I've jumped into the Twitter pool. Deep end. Happy to report the water's fine. I've met so many great food writers, sustainable food activists, gourmet home cooks, chefs, photographers, wine writers, it's been so fun. Like being at an ongoing virtual cocktail party, but it's much easier on the waistline. Unless of course, you hook up with my wino friends on Twitter, then you get into those Twitter Taste Live events and ...well, I digress.

Let's talk about a new dish or two to put into the meat-free rotation, shall we?

Ramps just sing Spring time and I love nothing more than grilling some with a little citrusy olive oil and salt. We usually have plans to do something else with them but we just don't seem to have any will power. After the first one or two off the grill, all caramelized and unctous and crispy at the same time; those plans are gone.

This may be the recipe that changes all that.

Ramp Pesto Mac and Cheese

Recipe:  Ramp Pesto Mac and Cheese

8 oz. fontina cheese

8 oz. mascarpone cheese

8 oz. asiago, grated

1/4 cup ramp pesto

1 lb elbow pasta, cooked until al dente

1/4 cup reserved pasta water

kosher salt, to taste

fresh cracked black pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to directions, drain and reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water.  Mix cheeses (reserve about 1/4 cup of asiago),  with the reserved pasta water, until creamy, season with salt and pepper.  Mix pasta with pesto and cheese mixture and mix until blended.  Add to a buttered baking dish and sprinkle remaining asiago cheese on top.    Bake at 350 for about 20 - 30 minutes, until golden brown and lightly crispy on top.  Serve.  Eat.

Sensible Sustainability

This meal is a perfect example of the concept I call "sensible sustainability." Some who like to be more dogmatic about these things will talk about a purely locavore diet. (I note for the record these types often live in the bull's eye surrounded by Pacific Ocean fish, Napa Valley Wines, and year-round stellar produce.) If we truly followed that, true Italian cheeses would be verboten. And pasta too, unless you grow within a 100 mile radius of wheat, which I don't. I've heard people exhorting us to buy only domestic wines. But a European wine might have a smaller carbon footprint than a domestic wine from the West Coast for me.

So let's be reasonable, shall we? One of the easiest ways to "Green" your diet is to eliminate or reduce food waste. Reducing waste is an unsung hero in the arsenal of tools to combat global warming. (How many metaphors can I mix here?) Read about the low carbon diet and food waste impacts at the great Bon Appetit Management Company site or read my summary of the Low Carbon Diet here (links to BAMCO are included). 

Make this meal S/O/L/E Food by buying local, organic ramps. If you're in SF like Denise is you can get excellent olive oils such as Pasolivo.They grow Tuscan varietal heirloom olives and press them with local citrus for outstanding, prize-winning oils. We love to brush their Meyer Lemon or Tangerine oil on ramps that we grill. Reduce the impact by making only what you'll eat. Tough outer leaves can be frozen for stock. If you're ambitious, make your own pasta. That reduces the packaging used in the making of the meal and the carbon impact of manufacturing the box, trucking the pasta.

And the simple act of eating a meal, try one meal a week, meat-free has significant positive benefits for your health, the environment. Not using animal protein gets you that second vowel - E for ethical. (See Kim O'Donnel's excellent A Mighty Appetite here, for the recent news on other meat-free initiatives.)

So relax, enjoy and go say hello to my friends at ChezUs!

Our Contributors this week - ChezUs

Check out the beautiful ChezUs website here, for great recipes and fun posts. 

Denise and Lenny cook and shoot, eat and critique out of a small San Francisco kitchen. Their site has video, podcasts and more. 

 

Other S/O/L/E Food Recipes:

• Carrot Soup - Mom's recipe
• Goin' to a Gnudi Show Courtesy of Cake & Commerce
• Calas by Poppy Tooker
• Meyer Lemon Pasta courtesy of Haphazard Gourmet Girl

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Bobby with Orange Fingers*

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Cheese and Epiphanies - Spain Rocks Me Once Again

After another delightful cheese discovery, I reached out to our local cheese experts at Formaggio Kitchen. Soon, we'll have a little gourmet gift giving help for your holidays. Stay tuned for that and please read about Ihsan Gurdal's French Title, Chevalier du Merite Agricole, which was recently bestowed.

As we were rummaging for dinner tonight, I decided our pre-Thanksgiving clean-out-the-fridge dinner du jour would be a pasta with a sort of cheese-enriched alfredo-style sauce studded with peas and shallots. I used low fat milk so it wasn't as overwhelmingly rich as a classic alfredo sauce is. Really ours was more of mornay type sauce.

Two of the cheeses I added included an aged gouda and another delightful surprise from Spain. Mahon is a rich nutty, creamy cheese which melts nicely.

Here is the description from Murray's website:

Aged for four to six months, the Coinga Mahon paste is firm with a cakey interior. The flavor is decidedly rustic: big, salty, nutty and meaty. With D.O. status, the raw cows' milk and aging are preserved by national quality standards. A hearty cheese ideal for colder weather.

Now for your viewing pleasure, the New York Times offers this lovely visual tour of some Spanish cheesemaking locations and activities.

If you're in Boston, please do go visit Las Ventas, which I wrote about, here. Undoubtedly, they will have cheeses to sample which you have yet to try. I'm a total cheese-head and I just learned about three Spanish cheeses in the past two weeks. Ahumado de Pria, Murcia al Vino, and now, Mahon.

Have a cheese party

Why not get a bunch of friends together and have a Spanish cheese tasting party? Each invitee can be responsible for bringing one cheese to share and a bit of info. They can present their selection to the group and you can provide accompaniments. Nuts, olives, fruit, crackers, breads. Wine or cider. How about beer which everyone is now buzzing about pairing with cheese?

Murray's selects seven categories and suggests any cheese tasting offers one from each of the seven: fresh, bloomy, washed-rind, semi-soft, firm, hard and blue.

If you'd like to get a cheese education this will soon become easier to find. Murray's Cheese is now partnering with Kroger supermarkets to open cheese shops within the grocery store chains. First one to open in Cincinnati on Tuesday. 

Whatever your feelings about Whole Foods, the cheese section is one that I've found to be pretty well-stocked with selections of various cheeses at a range of prices. But then, they have to be good here in Boston where we have such a wealth of options.

 

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We are so fortunate in Boston to have cheese expert Ihsan Gurdal and his knowledgeable staff at Formaggio Kitchen and South End Formaggio. Recently, Gurdal was awarded the Chevalier du Mèrite Agricol, which is comparable to the French Legion of Honor titles. They're awarded in three levels in a secret process, bestowing respect and honor on the recipients recognized for their “significant contributions to the development and progress of agriculture in France.” So he's really a big cheese, even the French say so!

I wrote about Ihsan Gurdal's honor recently on Suite101 Cheese Expert Ihsan Gurdal Awarded French Honor. This time of year it's good to recall shops like Formaggio Kitchen and South End Formaggio whether you're building a perfect cheese platter and need a little help, dusting off the fondue set, or starting holiday shopping.

Certainly the Chevalier du Merite Agricole medal is an honor for Ihsan Gurdal. I hope it brings the respect and customers he deserves. We're really lucky to have our own world-renowned expert right here in Boston.

While the award is from France, Gurdal has expertise globally. And, we have additional fromagiers. Two of the most exciting cheese finds of late hail from Spain. After Caleb introduced me to Las Ventas he brought home this Ahumado de Pria Spanish cheese. I knew from the name it would be smoky. But just slightly so.

I sampled more at Las Ventas (See Is Korean now the NBT Next Big Thing from Bi Bim Bap to Soccorat and Paella). Let me say again, Las Ventas is a place you must explore. Groceries for any foodie on your list, fresh made sandwiches, coffee, paella pans. Jamon.

Ahumado de Pareao

I cannot even find this Spanish cheese on Murray's site. Not in his book and not online. One Spanish-language site did mention it. Here is their Spanish and Google's English translation.

• El Queso ahumado de PRÍA esta elaborado a partir de leche pasteurizada de vaca agregando nata procedente de leche de oveja . • The smoking of PRIA this cheese produced from pasteurized milk cow adding cream from sheep's milk. [ed.note: this is Google's translation, not mine]

Se trata de un queso de forma cilíndrica que se presenta en tres formatos: 0,5 Kg, 1 Kg. It is a cylindrical shape of cheese that comes in three formats: 0.5 Kg 1 Kg. Y 3 Kg . And 3 Kg. Su corteza es lisa de color pardo claro con un ligero brillo y aroma ahumado.

Its bark is smooth brown clear with a slight gloss and smoky aroma.Smoked cheese of PRIA

En su interior la pasta es compacta de corte cerrado con pocos ojos irregularmente repartidos de tono blanco-amarillento. Its interior is compact pasta cut with few eyes closed irregularly distributed yellowish-white tone.

Posee un sabor suave con un ligero retrogusto ahumado.

It has a mild flavor with a slight smoky aftertaste. Una vez degustado su bouquet se mantiene algún tiempo en el paladar.

Once tasted its bouquet is maintained for some time on the palate.

Es ideal para el tapeo y como aperitivo cortado en tacos. It is ideal for tapas as a starter and cut into blocks. Se acompaña bien de vinos aromáticos y graduación alcohólica media, también con sidra natural fresca.

It is accompanied by good wines and aromatic alcohol half, also with natural fresh cider.

Se puede emplear rallado en platos de cocina o gratinado ya que les confiere un excelente sabor.

Can be used grated in gratin dishes or because they confer an excellent flavor.

Okay, so you got the picture. It's not common, but it is magnifico! And they sell it at Las Ventas. He may be the sole shop carrying it.

Murcia al vino - This goat cheese has a wine-stained rind, an amazing tangy, but creamy texture, and a definite wine finish. It's fantastic. It would be beautiful on a cheese platter.

And while we're on the subject of cheese: allow me to make a gift suggestion? How about the Murray's Cheese Handbook paired with a cheese knife or a hunk of good cheese?

That's a hostess or holiday gift anyone would love. Murray's is a New York institution and when their story begins like so:

Murray Greenberg (never met him; he died before I got here) was a Jewish Spanish civil war veteran and communist who opened a wholesale butter and egg shop a few doors up Cornelia street in 1940...

You know it's going to be good. And it is.

Listen to how they lovingly describe Murcia al vino (a cheese which I could barely find any info about anywhere on the web):

D.O.: Maybe it was another one of those farmhouse accidents: a little too much vino, a wheel of cheese rolls off the table into barrel, two days later somebody finds themselves decanting the first wheel of Cabra al Vino! Literally meaning “goat with wine," this semi-firm pasteurized goat from Spain’s Mediterranean coast is cured for 48-72 hours in Doble Pasta red wine. The paste remains nearly pure white and the rind absorbs a lovely violet hue. The paste is sweet and smooth, delicately grapey, with a gentle, pliable texture and mild fruity flavor.

So all you cheeselovers, break out and try something new. World class expertise is in your backyard and at your fingertips.

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