Cheese and Anchovy Appetizer

Blog's Category:  Hors d'oeuvre

Cheese and Anchovy Appetizer

Intro

I was watching Jacques Pepin's "fast food my way" videos for 100th time and finally made one of his genius "fast foods", cheese and anchovy appetizer. It was huge success, everybody who I gave this appetizer to try, either my friends, my co-worker or my finicky in regards to gourmet food husband, everyone just loved it. I know that I will be making it again and again. With my sick love to anchovies, this recipe is a real finding. Actually word itself, recipe, is too big for the description how to make this appetizer. It's just a matter of throwing some basic stuff from your shelf into a processor and, voila, you have this sophisticatedly delicious appetizer. You also can play different ways how to serve it - some of my serving suggestions are below. And, by the way, for those who you know are not big fans of anchovies, it's not that necessary to disclose all of your ingredients, right ;) For example, I didn't tell my son that it has a-n-c-h-o-v-y (!) inside :)

Variations

- Jacques Pepin does not give exact measures for ingredients and you really do not need it. Vary ingredient quantities to your liking. Below are approximate measures I used in this recipe.
I used almost the same ingredients as Jacque used, with exclusion of a fresh mushrooms just because I didn't have them on hands. Nevertheless I've got an awesome treat and so happy with an outcome J

Taste Description

Taste is bright and pungent, Jacques calls it assertive and I can totally understand what he means. It's not a beautiful waltz in your mouth, it's more like Tchaikovsky, piano concert 1... really. You will remember this taste for a while and you will be craving it over and over - flavors of anchovy, garlic and cold pressed olive oil hold together without wresting each other. Almonds, along with bread, moistened with olive oil, give a great texture and body to this beautiful, harmonious mess!

How to Serve
Serve it as Jacques suggests, on a small squares of your favorite cheese (I tried on two, so far my favorite is parmesan). Also I spread it on a slice of country bread and could not even think of better pairing to my afternoon tea cup :). My next idea - to spoon it in a mushroom cup and bake (may be with some cheese or cream cheese..) ... so many ways..

...and Store

It will last for a while in your fridge. I think for 1 week for sure (it's not that I doubt it will stay there for THAT long :))

Cheese and Anchovy Appetizer

• 1 small can of anchovies
• 1 cup of roasted, not salted almonds
• 2 slices of country bread, torn in pieces
• 2-3 garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• cheese of your preference, cut in small 1.5-2" squares

- Throw all ingredients, but cheese, in a food processor and turn it on for 123 turns (kidding) until well combined. Taste. Add more olive oil if you like.
- Spoon on cheese squares and serve. Enjoy with a glass of nice Pinot Grigio wine!

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IN PICTURES

My oldie processor is still great at doing its job :)

I wish I would have the smallest cookie dough measuring spoon... I used melon baller - it wasn't perfect for a job but OK in general. You can use just your fingers to shape it up as Jacques does - I see nothing wrong with that!

I sprinkle some red paper flakes on top which did nothing to dish. They just could not compete with a bold taste of anchovie mix.