Happy NZ Cheese Month!

I was over the moon last month when I joined a bunch of cheese-loving media on a NZ Cheese road trip. We visited some great local cheese makers, tasted some amazing and some polarising cheese and even met a lovely herd of water buffalo north of Auckland in Whangaripo. One of our stops was at Il Casaro, located in Glenfield in an unexpectedly industrial area proving that cheese needn’t be made out in the countryside to be good. Here we witnessed Italian cheese maker and co-founder Massimiliano make mozzarella by hand as he explained the process and treated us to freshly made cheese.

New Zealand cheese is nothing short of phenomenal. The quality and creativity of our cheese is absolutely good enough for the world market, but many small producers can only meet the demand of our local appetites. This means that our very best cheese actually stays in the country. A win for us.

In honour of NZ Cheese Month this month, I had the pleasure of trying this organic burrata from Il Casaro. This plump pouch of milky goodness is hand made locally from a lovingly curated Jersey Fresian mix of cows, burrata (literally “buttered”) made from mozzarella and cream has a fresh milk flavour and gently oozes when pierced.

I’m hesitant to call this a recipe because it’s just so easy. It’s more a method with suggestions. Feel free to make your own additions and tweaks. I served this with a slices of toasted Freedom Loaf from The Midnight Baker but you could sub with toasted baguette, a seeded loaf or ciabatta slices. I’ve used vincotto is a sweet syrup made entirely of grapes but you can also use balsamic syrup.

I’m in love with the colours in this dish which would make for an elegant Halloween spread later this month if you’re that way inclined. This recipe is wonderful as a starter or light lunch for two, or as part of a platter or tapas.

Burrata for warmer weather

Ingredients

• 100-200g burrata
• 2 capsicum
• 2 tomatoes
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Vincotto or balsamic syrup
• 1 lemon
• Fresh oregano
• Toast to serve

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F).
2. Remove burrata from the fridge to bring to room temperature.
3. Remove stems and seeds from the capsicum. Roughly chop the capsicum and tomatoes.
4. Place chopped vegetables on an oven tray, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and toss to combine.
5. Roast vegetables for 20 minutes at 200°C (390°F), flipping once.
6. Divide onto a plate or platter and place burrata on top. Drizzle with vinocotto, lemon juice and lemon zest and fresh oregano leaves.
7. Serve slathered on top of toasted slices of your favourite bread. Enjoy!

This post is part of Our Growing Edge, a monthly blogging event to encourage bloggers to try new food related things.

This month’s host is Annika from We Must Be Dreamers and the theme this month is HALLOWEEN.

If you have a blog and you are eating or cooking something new this month, click below to join. More information here.