At Casellula last night, Dad and I tried - and loved - this appetizer, but we both thought that it actually worked better as an unusual, mild dessert. We set it aside, ate through our cheese and charcuterie, and finished off the meal with the sweet, honey-and-lemon soaked ricotta.
On this episode of “Better Bites,” I head over to Casellula to learn how to make the perfect cheese platter. (If you’re having trouble loading the video, you can watch it here).
Cheeses cheeses cheeses
Holy delicious
The first cheese I sampled during the BetterTV shoot at Casellula on Friday: Pavé Sauvage (a Pasteurized Cow’s Milk Cheese from Perigord, France) served with Red Wine Cherries.
Red Wine Cherries
8 oz (1/2 pound) Dried Cherries
1 1/2 c Sugar
1 Bottle Red Wine
1 Vanilla Bean, scrapedCombine all ingredients in pot and cook over medium heat until you achieve a syrupy consistency.
The concept for today’s shoot was that one of Casellula’s employees would teach me how to make the perfect cheese plate (a la a “Domestic Bliss” episode). Unfortunately, there was a little snafu with the woman who was supposed to be my on-air “instructor,” so I ended up having to do the episode on my own. This entailed me learning all about the cheeses and how to create the condiments in approximately five minutes (that’s me studying my notes up there), and then sharing my newfound expertise on camera. Which, you know, made me a little nervous.
But?!
One take. That’s right…ONE. TAKE.
Yee!
This afternoon, Megan, Eric and I headed over to Casellula with BetterTV to shoot an episode on “The Perfect Cheese Plate.” Above, I’m having a pre-shoot chat with our wonderful producer, Rebecca, and our cameraman, Mike.
Casellula, as I’ve said before, is one of my absolute favorite restaurants in the city; what makes them so special is the fact that each and every cheese is paired with a perfect and unusual condiment. Today, for example, we had a goat’s milk cheese paired with red wine cherries, a cow’s milk cheese from Wales paired with roasted mushrooms, and an Oregon blue paired with brown sugar fudge (my favorite by FAR).
Vince cashmere sweater (I changed into something that popped a little more shortly after this was taken).
My top picks for where to eat in Hell’s Kitchen:
- Casellula: A cheese and wine cafe with the most inspired, tastebud-exploding pairings I’ve ever had. The “Pig’s Ass Sandwich” is also quite yummy.
- Uncle Nick’s: a Greek restaurant on 9th Avenue with to-die-for mussels in white wine and garlic sauce (warning: you will smell like garlic for days).
- Riposo: A casually chic wine bar that happens to have one of the least expensive and best brunches in the area (please try the eggs benedict served over prosciutto and melted mozzarella on garlicky toast).
Kendrick and I stopped in to Casellula for some olives and cheese on Sunday night, and he tried their chili-infused mead (I took one sniff and not-so-politely declined). Mead is pretty hard to find nowadays, but such an interesting addition to a drink menu: made with honey and water (via fermentation with yeast), mead is sometimes referred to as “honey wine” and varies dramatically in terms of taste and alcohol content (it usually hovers somewhere around the alcohol content of a strong wine, but can be distilled to brandy or liqueur strength).
Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat called mead “the ancestor of all fermented drinks,” while Claude Levi-Strauss declared it a marker of the passage “from nature to culture.” Maybe I should give it another try? Next time I’ll have one without the chili infusion, thanks.
Casellula pairs each cheese with the most unexpected, flavor-enhancing delicacies - we’re always amazed at how each accompaniment perfectly complements (and often heightens) the flavor of each cheese.
Closest to farthest away (they arrange the cheeses from mildest to strongest):
- Woodcock Farms Summer Snow (sheep’s cheese from Vermont) served with fudge and a hibiscus flower (this was far and away our favorite)
- Tavoliere (cow’s cheese from Italy) served with an apple cider reduction and an apple crisp
