Carpaccio of Tomatoes with Fresh Goats’ Cheese
Hooray! I’ve planted loads of tomatoes in the vegetable garden and they’re beginning to flower! I’ve got red ones, green ones, yellow ones and even black ones; big ones, little ones, round ones and olive-shaped ones. I’ve even got some striped ones, too. And I’ve discovered that I’m a very, very impatient gardener. Yes, that’s right, I want to plant seeds in the morning and harvest my homegrown vegetables in the evening! So to assuage my impatience – or to help all of you readers in wintry Australia chase away the winter blues – here is a gorgeous, summery dish for you to assemble. It’s my Carpaccio of Tomatoes with Fresh Goats’ Cheese.
If you don’t happen to like or can’t get fresh goats’ cheese, choose another soft cheese, preferably organic and locally produced. Get out your prettiest plate or platter, grab some summery veg like cucumbers and mushrooms (summery mushrooms? well, maybe LOL!) and the most colourful tomatoes you can find, and get assembling. Take a wee pikkie of your finished plate and share it on our Facebook page, too!
Carpaccio of Tomatoes with Fresh Goats’ Cheese
A super idea for enhancing the summer’s colourful tomatoes! A great idea for a quick, light lunch with the girls. Use your imagination – and what’s lurking in your veg drawer – to jazz up your plate, and share it on our Facebook page!
You will need:
- half a cucumber, sliced
- a handful of sliced mushrooms
- 3 or 4 pretty, colourful tomatoes, sliced
- a cup of fresh, organic goats’ cheese or other soft cheese
- a good drizzle of walnut oil or other tasty oil
- several turns of freshly ground black pepper
- scallions/spring onions and fresh herbs to garnish
- a pretty plate or platter
How to assemble:
On your prettiest plate or platter, make a circle with some sliced cucumber…
…like this:
Make another circle of vegetables on top. Here I’m using sliced mushrooms – because that’s what I had in the fridge 😉
Next up are our beautiful sliced tomatoes.
For ease in placing your soft cheese, plop a metal circle right in the centre of your assemblage. A carefully opened tuna tin (top and bottom removed with a good tin opener) will do the trick nicely! You can also just do something pretty with your cheese in the next step.
Delicately add the goats’ cheese in the circle, being careful not to mess up your stack of vegetables. Our fresh goats’ cheese comes from a small organic goat farm in the Cher department of France, where the lovely Cécile’s goats run around in grass-covered fields when the weather is good.
Again delicately (you can do it, you know you can!) remove the metal circle to reveal your circle of cheese. Garnish with some fresh herbs and several turns of freshly ground black pepper. And since walnuts and grapevines enjoy a special companion relationship and are often seen together here around Sancerre, I drizzled my stack with some gorgeous walnut oil. Délicieux !
Et voilà ! Your Carpaccio of Tomatoes with Fresh Goats’ Cheese is ready to eat. It’s so pretty, it’s almost a shame to dig in, isn’t it?
To complement your Carpaccio of Tomatoes with Fresh Goats’ Cheese with other textures, serve it with some crusty bread, with breadsticks/grissini, or with savoury biscuits and crackers. You might even want to make some of Bernie Brennan’s Almond and Seed Crackers to go with. They’re super fast and easy in your Thermomix!
Bon appétit !
