Secret Ingredient = Goat Cheese

Every week, Kate and I get together with a few of our friends for “Wine Wednesday”, which consists of a lot of chit-chat while drinking red wine and attempting to watch the newest episodes of Modern Family and Top Chef (if we can stop talking long enough to pay attention). I look forward to this night every single week! It’s a great mid-week treat. Several of us take turns hosting it, and typically the host will prepare a light, simple snack to munch on throughout the evening.

Last week we tried something a little different. Since it was the season finale of Top Chef, we decided to choose a “secret ingredient” (like they do in Iron Chef), and everyone had to prepare an appetizer using that ingredient. After some debating, we decided that the secret ingredient should be goat cheese – an ingredient unanimously loved by the entire group.

It was a lot of fun to show up on Wednesday and see what everyone created. Surprisingly, there were no repeats. I thought for sure there would be at least one, but we ended up with a wide range of things to try including: Savory Palmiers, Salsa Baked Goat Cheese, Goat Cheese and Spinach Pizza, Goat Cheese and Sun-Dried Tomato Spread and Goat Cheese and Balsamic Crostini.

The Savory Palmiers were from a Barefoot Contessa recipe on the Food Network website. My sister-in-law, Jen, made these for Christmas Eve last year, and I thought they were great, so I decided to give them a try. Mine were okay but not quite as good as Jen’s because I slightly overcooked them so they were a little too crispy. They make for a very pretty presentation – they look like little hearts. You can find the recipe here.   

Kate brought the Salsa Baked Goat Cheese with tortilla chips. This was actually my favorite dish – although I liked all of them a lot. I am a huge fan of cilantro but I wouldn’t normally think of pairing it with goat cheese; however it definitely worked! The goat cheese isn’t overpowering and the nuts add a nice crunch to the dip. You could play around with this with different salsas, nuts, add onions, or even add some black beans.  It would also be good with French baguette. It was a big hit! The recipe can be found here. 

Our friend Peppy brought the Goat Cheese and Spinach Pizza. This was also excellent – reminded me of something from Dewey’s. The pizza crust was a store-bought Boboli whole wheat crust. She sautéed fresh spinach in a tsp of olive oil and a clove of diced garlic until it was wilted. That went on top of the pizza crust with chopped tomatoes and crumbles of creamy goat cheese (generous amounts). This was so good and yet so simple. You could play around with this by adding other veggies (roasted red peppers and/or eggplant would be good), crushed red pepper, etc.

Our friend Abby brought the Sun-Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Spread. This was also very good! (Kate’s favorite!) Heads up - the recipe calls for 3 cloves of minced garlic and Abby only used one. You could definitely still taste the garlic, but it wasn’t over-powering. I think 3 cloves would be way too much. Abby served the dip with bagel chips, which was an excellent choice! It would also be good with tortilla chips or pita chips. The recipe can be found here. 

The final appetizer we had was the Goat Cheese and Balsamic Crostini, which our friend Christina brought. She was really worried about how these turned out…and they ended up being a big hit! The sweet, creamy goat cheese paired with the honey-balsamic drizzle was delicious, and the bread gave it a nice crunch. The goat cheese was definitely the star of the dish, unlike some of the other appetizers. I don’t have the exact recipe, but I think it was similar to this recipe. 

If anyone else has any other great recipes with goat cheese, please share!