Montébore Slow Food Presidium: three delicious first courses
We have dedicated an entire blog to Montébore cheese and its fascinating history which you can reread here.
In this article we offer you three delicious first course recipes featuring this very rare cheese. To try to satisfy all tastes, we chose two risottos and one pasta (you can easily use gnocchi instead of pasta).
Simple, local recipes, easy to make even for the less experienced but capable of giving great satisfaction to the sight and, above all, to the palate.
Our first advice is always to taste this cheese raw, to appreciate all its olfactory nuances, intense taste and aromatic persistence.
If you decide to try it cooked, no problem: taste and enjoyment are guaranteed!
Risotto with Timorasso and Montébore
Premise: you can replace the Timorasso with any other dry white wine of medium structure, or with an excellent bubbles. To the wise, a few words!
Ingredients for 4 people
Carnaroli rice: 320 gr.
Timorasso wine: 300 ml.
Vegetable broth: 300 ml.
Montébore: 150 gr. as well as a few thin slices to decorate the dish
Butter: 60 gr.
A shallot or half an onion
Salt and pepper
Method
Place the finely chopped shallot in a pan and fry it over a light heat in a knob of butter for about five minutes, adding a ladle of broth. Add the risotto and toast it over a high heat for about two minutes, add the Timorasso and when the wine has evaporated, cook the risotto by adding the vegetable broth and continuing to stir. Overall it will take about 15/17 minutes.
While the risotto is cooking, grate or cut the Montébore into small pieces and keep it aside.
Once cooked, turn off the heat and stir in the risotto with the cold butter and the grated Montebore. Let the flavors blend with the pan covered for two minutes.
Serve the risotto on flat plates, decorating it with thin slices of Montébore
Risotto creamed with Montébore, pears, rosemary and hazelnuts
Ingredients for 4 people
For the risotto:
Carnaroli rice: 320 gr.
Dry white wine: 150 ml.
Vegetable broth: 300 ml.
Montébore: 150 gr.
Butter: 60 gr.
A shallot or half an onion
Salt and pepper
For the pears:
Williams pears, possibly organic: 2
Butter: 10 gr.
2 sprigs of rosemary
1 clove of garlic
1 coffee cup of dry white wine
Method
Place the finely chopped shallot in a pan and fry it over a light heat in a knob of butter for about five minutes, adding a ladle of broth. Add the risotto and toast it over a high heat for about two minutes, add the white wine and when the wine has evaporated, continue cooking the risotto by adding the vegetable broth and continuing to stir.
Grate or cut the Montébore into small pieces and set aside.
While the rice cooks, prepare the pears.
Wash the pears carefully, cut them in half and remove the core and stem. Cut one half into thin slices lengthwise, while the other three halves into cubes of approximately one cm.
In a pan, melt the butter with the rosemary sprigs and the garlic clove. Add the cubes and pear slices and sauté them for about five minutes over high heat, being careful not to burn them. Pour in the white wine and, once it has evaporated, remove the cubes and keep them aside, instead continue cooking the slices for a couple of minutes so as to make them golden and cooked.
Two minutes after cooking the rice, add the Montébore and mix everything with a ladle of vegetable broth.
Once the cheese has melted, turn off the heat, add the diced pears that you left aside and mix everything together.
Serve the risotto creamed with Montébore, decorating it with a few slices of sautéed pear, chopped hazelnuts and a few rosemary needles.
Pastries with Montébore fondue and pepper
Ingredients for 4 people
Milk: 500 ml.
Long pasta: 350 gr.
Montébore: 100 gr.
Flour: to taste
Butter: to taste
Black peppercorns (or a mix of various types of pepper if you have them available): 3 teaspoons
salt
Method
Coarsely crush 3 teaspoons of peppercorns (you can do this with the help of a rolling pin, between two sheets of baking paper).
Remove the rind from the Montébore and cut it into small pieces. Melt 35 gr. in a saucepan. of butter mixing it with 35 g of flour; add a pinch of salt and the milk, slowly; when the milk begins to boil, cook the béchamel for about 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly. When it begins to "curd", add the Montébore, stirring over a low heat. As soon as the cheese has melted, remove the sauce from the heat.
Boil the "pasta al dente", drain it and toss it gently in the sauce. Divide the pasta onto plates and serve immediately.
Instead of pasta, you can easily use Montébore fondue to season potato gnocchi!
Try these simple recipes and let us know what you think. You can find the main ingredient, Montébore here.
