I must wish everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you had a great holiday, spent with family and friends. What a great time of year for sure. Now onto the food…

the cheese: gorgonzola

I am not really sure why I thought Gorgonzola would be great for this sandwich, but I am really glad that I did. This was different and good.

Gorgonzola is a famous blue cheese originating in Italy, with a distinctive smell which many liken to old shoes. Gorgonzola is part of an illustrious family of blue cheeses, which are formed when ambient molds infiltrate curing cheeses. Today, Gorgonzola is inoculated directly with the mold spores, to guarantee that the cheese is colonized by the right mold. The cheese comes in a young and sweet variation and a much more robust aged version, both of which are widely enjoyed. (WiseGeek)

I always found it interesting that Gorgonzola is purposefully moldy but it sure tastes good. Granted, I haven’t always liked it, as a kid it freaked me out, but as my tastes matured and I became more “daring,” Gorgonzola quickly appeared on my radar. A couple of local restaurants serve Gorgonzola on homemade potato chips and it is delish. I would definitely recommend. This particular Gorgonzola had a nice color and a great kick to it. Upon initial tasting of the cheese, I was almost worried that it would be too much for the sandwich, but I was wrong. Thankfully.

thoughts

Being that this Sunday fell just a few day after Thanksgiving, I had to get into the holiday spirit and use some sort of Thanksgiving dinner related food in this week’s grilled cheese sandwich. There were plenty of options, sweet potatoes, cranberries, etc, but I went with homemade pumpkin pie. Thankfully, the sous chef had created just that a few days earlier. Perfect. Once I decided on pie for the main ingredient in this week’s grilled cheese, I went to Google and found a great recipe for “pumpkin dip” that inspired me.

When I first noticed cream cheese in the recipe, I was not sure how I felt, but it seemed to work out really well. I scooped out the pumpkin pie and mixed it in a bowl with cream cheese and some cinnamon/cinnamon sugar to taste. I made sure that the added cream cheese did not totally overpower the cinnamon flavor evident in the pumpkin pie. If you do in fact try this, make sure to taste as you go, allowing you to figure out the pie:cream cheese:cinnamon ratio. There really isn’t a true science to it.

Prior to making the grilled cheese sandwich, I tasted a small sliver of the bread. I was somewhat worried as I was not sure that I liked it. Those fears, however, were gone once it was toasted and hiding some pumpkin pie dip.

grade: A

I was searching the local market for a cheese when I saw they had Blue Cheese and Gorgonzola on sale and something clicked. I thought to myself, why not go with Gorgonzola for this sandwich? As I said, I am glad I did. The added Gorgonzola added a nice kick to the sweet pumpkin pie. As I was eating the sandwich, I had to add more cheese as I originally did not want to totally overpower the sandwich. I found out though, when you find the nice ratio of pumpkin pie dip to Gorgonzola, the taste is awesome.

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