Monday, August 22, 2011

Baked Deliciousness

Hello from San Francisco!! Tricia here. I landed just yesterday and after some walking around already have a list of wine bars, farmer's markets (that serve wine) and tastings to get started on so there will be plenty of material to come. Not to mention Dave and I have our trip up to Napa and Sonoma coming in just a few short weeks.

This baked feta recipe is a shout out to our friend Paige who works (in my case worked) at Bacaro with us. It's as easy as an appetizer gets to prepare and make and impresses the masses to boot. I made this just before my departure as part of my best friend's birthday celebration dinner. I also happen to think that when you bake orange and lemon slices, which are part of this recipe but also serve as the garnish here, it adds a really pretty rustic look to any dish.

You can pair this with your favorite Pinot Gris or Pinot Grigio, both very similar in flavor profiles. These wines are light and crisp with a good amount of acidity to balance the salty feta.

Baked Feta
1-2 blocks of solid feta cheese (depending on how many you are hosting)
1/2-3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, you can eyeball this, just want to make sure there's a good amount covering the cheese
juice and zest of one orange *easier if you zest first and watch those fingers!
juice and zest of one lemon
fresh rosemary--no need to chop it and probably about 3-4 sprigs' worth will do
fresh ground pepper and a little sea or kosher salt--easy on the salt since the cheese offers up plenty of it

You bake this at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes and done!



Serve over crackers. If you want a little twist on this you can follow the same directions but wrap the feta in phyllo dough first and serve with some crisp granny smith apples to top with it--also a really nice compliment to the Pinot.

Looking forward to posting more from this side of the Mississippi!!

Cheers,
Dave and Trish (Dave's here in spirit)