Grilled Minas Cheese with Pesto Sauce Recipe
Rhiannon: Summer meals don’t always have to be about barbecued hotdogs and hamburgers eventhough we love those too. I met up with one chef who shows us how to whip up a simple Brazilian appetizer for summer entertaining. That’s in today’s Better Bites.
Leticia Moreinos Shwartz grew up in Brazil. And today, she’s sharing her classic yet contemporary recipes from her new cookbook, The Brazilian Kitchen. Thanks for joining us today.
Leticia: I’m so excited to be here.
Rhiannon: We are thrilled to have you. We’d love trying new recipes. And today, you’re sharing with us a Brazilian recipe. Tell us, what is unique about Brazilian food?
Leticia: Well, Brazilian cuisine is really a mixture of three different cultures, the Portuguese, the African and the native Indian. And just about everything that we do is a reflection of these cultures.
Rhiannon: I think a lot of people don’t realize that and it’s also easy to cook. I never really guessed.
Leticia: Very easy with simple ingredients. Well, we can shop local and eat global these days. That’s what’s good.
Rhiannon: So, what are we making today?
Leticia: So today, we’re making a grilled minas cheese. I’m going to start drizzling a little bit of olive oil. So, minas cheese is the national cheese from Brazil and the main comes, the cheese originated in the state of Mina Gerais, hence the name.
Rhiannon: Could you actually buy it locally?
Leticia: Yes, you can substitute it for mozzarella or feta or even queso blanco.
Rhiannon: Okay
Leticia: Okay, so we’re going to turn a little bit higher, the grill pan. You can use.
Rhiannon: How hot do you want it?
Leticia: About, well you want it to make nice marks.
Rhiannon: Okay.
Leticia: You can use a grill pan or a barbecue grill. And here we’re going to use a panini.
Rhiannon: And so how long do we need to grill it?
Leticia: About two minutes on each side.
Rhiannon: Okay, while that’s grilling, we’re going to make the sauce.
Leticia: Right, in the meantime, we’re going to make a Brazilian Pesto
Rhiannon: So, these are just herbs, what type of herbs are we using?
Leticia: Cilantro and parsley and we’re going to mix.
Rhiannon: This is going to be nice and fresh.
Leticia: Yes, absolutely. I’m going to mix in Brazil nuts that gives kind of like the exotic touch.
Rhiannon: And you could buy those at any grocery store.
Leticia: Any grocery store.
Rhiannon: Cayenne and is that salt?
Leticia: Salt, pepper, cayenne, garlic and we start with a touch of olive oil just to get it going.
Rhiannon: Just a little drop, okay. So, that was easy.
Leticia: That’s it, it’s all done.
Rhiannon: All quick, 20 seconds, can’t beat that.
Leticia: Right. So now with the Pesto, we just drizzle that, like that
Rhiannon: Over the warm cheese. Now, could you eat this with like a cracker or something like that, or is it better plain?
Leticia: You can or with bread and tomatoes
Rhiannon: That sounds delicious. Okay, I’m going to try a little bit. Meanwhile, tell everyone what other kind of recipes they can expect in your cookbook.
Leticia: Well the cookbook, what’s nice about it is that it really opens a new frontier in the world of cooking. And now, you can incorporate Brazilian cuisine into your kitchen just like you might, Italian, French, etcetera. They’re classic and creative dishes.
Rhiannon: Thank you so much Leticia, this is delicious. A nice, light summer appetizer. If you’d like to try this recipe and many more, you can pick up Leticia’s book, The Brazilian Kitchen. It’s available on Amazon.com.