Recommendations
Gorgonzola on raisin bread with Lustau Pedro Ximenez
Under the grill go slices of raisin bread with gorgonzola that puffs up and turns golden brown. The Pedro Ximenez sets against that an almost black, very sweet wine that literally repeats the raisins in the bread.
From the shelf
The bottle
Lustau is based in Jerez de la Frontera and bottles this Pedro Ximenez from one hundred percent pedro ximenez grapes. After the harvest those grapes are laid out to dry in the vineyard, the asoleo, so they turn to raisins and their sugar concentrates; the Consejo Regulador sets more than 212 grams of residual sugar per litre for this style. Fermentation is stopped with wine alcohol and the wine then matures exclusively oxidatively, at Lustau twelve years in Jerez. So no flor is involved in this style. The bottle is at 17 percent alcohol, within the 15 to 22 percent the Consejo names, and comes to us in 70 centilitres.
The combination
Why this works together
Gorgonzola is a blue cheese made from cow's milk with Penicillium roqueforti, and in the piquant version matured for at least sixty to eighty days; what you get in the mouth is salt with a sharp mould edge. As soon as such a cheese melts, that salt becomes even more direct. Against so much salt only a very sweet wine has an answer, and taste research explains why that works without the two cancelling each other out: sweetness considerably lowers the threshold at which salt is perceived, so that sweet and salty make room for each other instead of fighting for space. The second layer of this combination is in the bread. The raisins in the slice are sun-dried grapes, and the wine in the glass is made from sun-dried grapes; it is the same raw material, once as a companion to cheese and once as wine. The Consejo explicitly names intense blue cheeses with Pedro Ximenez.
At the table
The dish
- For 4 people
- Ready in 15 minutes
- Type cheese course
What you need
- 4 thick slices of raisin bread
- 200 g gorgonzola piccante
- 50 g fresh cream cheese
- freshly ground black pepper
How to make it
- Turn the oven grill on to its highest setting.
- Crumble the gorgonzola into a small bowl, add the fresh cream cheese and mix the two with a fork into a coarse mass.
- Toast the slices of raisin bread on one side, in the pan or the toaster.
- Place the slices on a baking tray with the untoasted side up and spread the cheese mixture over them.
- Place the tray under the grill for four to five minutes, until the cheese is golden brown and bubbling.
- Take the slices out, grind black pepper over them, cut them in half and serve immediately.
In the glass
Serving
Serve this Pedro Ximenez at 12 to 14 degrees according to the Consejo Regulador; Lustau gives 10 to 12 degrees for its own Pedro Ximenez, so slightly cooler is fine too. Use a catavinos or a white wine glass and keep the portion small: with a cheese of this calibre a quarter to a third of a glass is enough. An opened bottle keeps for a long time; the Consejo reckons on about two months for oxidatively aged sherry with the bottle closed and stored cool, and because of the high sugar content this style is in practice even more patient.
Everything about Lustau Pedro XimenezBack to Recommendations from ’t Bockje
Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan personen onder de 18 jaar. NIX18