CHEESECAKE ON MY MIND

Quesada pasiega, a Spanish cheesecake.

I’ve had cheesecake on the brain. Not sure why. But instead of indulging in a rich, New York-style cheesecake, I decided to make a Spanish recipe, quesada pasiega, which is more like a cheese custard and ever-so-easy to put together.

“Pasiega” comes from the Valley of Pas in Cantabria, northern “green” Spain, which is famous for its cheeses. Traditionally, this dessert is made with fresh cheese curd (cuajado), before it is shaped and cured on the way to becoming cheese. But it is easy to adapt to any sort of fresh, soft cheese—fromage blanc, ricotta, requesón, quark, unsalted cottage cheese, thick Greek yogurt.

I used requesón, similar to ricotta, a soft curd cheese tasting of fresh milk, instead of Pasiego cheese curds for this cheesecake.

 Please note that this recipe has one very exotic ingredient—butter! If you are a regular follower of my blogs about Spanish cooking you may have noticed (or, perhaps not) that butter never appears in the recipes. In Spanish cooking, and in my own kitchen, olive oil is the fat of choice. However, I just happened to have a tub of butter left  behind by a guest. And, as Cantabria is a land of verdant meadows, rolling hills and pastures where cows graze, butter and cheese are part of the region’s cuisine.

Bread crumbs give this custard consistency. Use 4 or 5 slices of day-old bread, crusts removed. Break the bread into pieces and pulse in a food processor until the bread is reduced to medium crumbs. You should have about 2 cups of crumbs. (Some recipes for quesada call for flour instead of bread crumbs.)

The quesada is good served with a fruit compote (see the recipe for pears in sweet wine here) or strawberry puree.

Quesada pasiega cut into squares for serving.

Cheese Custard Squares
Quesada Pasiega

1 cup milk
2 strips lemon zest
2-inch cinnamon stick
2 cups fresh bread crumbs
3 tablespoons softened butter
¾ cup sugar
3 eggs
2 cups fromage blanc, ricotta or other unsalted fresh cheese
Cinnamon to garnish (optional)

Combine the milk, lemon zest and cinnamon stick in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Let cool to lukewarm. Remove zest and cinnamon.

Set aside 3 tablespoons of bread crumbs. Place the remaining crumbs in a food processor and pour over the milk. Process until smooth.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Butter a 13X9 inch rectangular baking pan and sprinkle with the reserved 3 tablespoons of bread crumbs.

Cream the butter in a mixing bowl (or add directly to the food processor). Beat in the sugar, then the eggs, one by one. Beat in the the fresh cheese. Stir in the bread and milk mixture.

Pour the batter into the baking pan. Bake until the custard is set and a skewer comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

Allow to cool in the pan. Loosen the edges and turn out onto a work surface. Cut the custard into pieces approximately 3 by 2 inches and arrange them on a serving platter. Dust with cinnamon, if desired.

THIS GAZPACHO IS HOT!

Hot gazpacho, a cooked version, served in a cazuela.

You probably think gazpacho is “cool”, as in chilled. But this one is “hot,” as in heated. It still qualifies as gazpacho because it’s made with bread and olive oil, the essential ingredients for gazpacho whether tomato-red or almond-white. (See the recipe for classic gazpacho here.)

I’ve got a second crop of tomatoes ripening and green peppers galore. As the days are finally beginning to cool (I hope the change of seasons also brings some rain), cold gazpacho is not as appealing as it was only a couple weeks ago. So I am making this “hot gazpacho.”

Ripe figs to garnish the soup.

In my village, where it’s known as gazpacho caliente or sopa de tomate, it is served with slices of ripe figs—also in season—as garnish. Sometimes it also has clams or salt cod added.

The soup can also be pureed.

The soup can be pureed, if you like, making it more like smooth gazpacho. But it is perfectly ok to leave it with bits of vegetables in the broth. This home-style soup is usally made with water, but chicken, meat or fish stock can be used instead. You should use enough bread to almost soak up all the broth. If it’s not tomato season, the soup can be made with canned tomatoes. No figs? Use grapes or chopped apple for garnish instead.

Lots of bread to soak up the broth.

Hot Gazpacho
Gazpacho Caliente 

Serves 4.

1/3 cup olive oil
4-6 thick slices of country bread
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2-3 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon pimentón (paprika)
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground pepper
Red pepper flakes (optional)
1 teaspoon salt
5 cups water or stock
Fresh figs, peeled and quartered
Mint sprigs
Chopped green onion

In a soup pan heat half of the oil. Fry the bread slices until golden on both sides. Remove and reserve.

Add the remaining oil to the pan and sauté the onion, pepper and garlic until softened, 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook over high heat for 5 minutes more. Add the pimentón, cumin, pepper, pepper flakes and salt. Add the water or stock and cook for 15 minutes. (If desired, use an immersion blender to puree the soup with one slice of the bread.)

Immediately before serving place a slice of bread in each bowl. Ladle the soup over the bread. Garnish with figs, mint and green onion.

SOOTHING CHICKEN SOUP

Sopa de Picadillo--Chicken broth with chopped garnishes.

I’ve got an upset stomach and a low-grade fever. My joints ache and I’m feeling a little woozy. I sure don’t want to cook or eat very much. But, still, there’s an empty place; I need something.

Ah, chicken soup. The worldwide panacea for everything that ails you. “Jewish penicillin.” Mama’s home remedy.

In Spain, the restorative soup is sopa de picadillo, a rich chicken broth that’s embellished with chopped egg, chopped ham, croutons and sometimes a shot of Sherry. Sopa de picadillo is considered a hangover cure and a wedding night pep-up. It’s what mamá feeds an ailing youngster.

Authentic sopa de picadillo is made with the leftover broth from puchero or cocido, a rich one-pot-meal of chicken, beef, salt pork and ham bone with vegetables and chickpeas.

Picadillo means “chopped mixture.” So the soup’s garnish is chopped hard-cooked egg, chopped ham, chopped chicken and diced bread. Some of the vegetables and chickpeas from the puchero can be added to the soup. Instead of crisp fried bread, rice or fideos (vermicelli noodles) can be cooked in the broth. Sometimes, instead of chopped egg, egg yolks are mixed with a little Sherry and stirred into the soup, or, any eggs from inside a hen, resembling egg yolks without the shells, are poached whole in the broth.

The sprig of mint, floated on top of each bowl of soup, is essential. It’s aroma sets off the flavors of chicken and ham so well.

My sickbed soup was a simpler version. I used homemade chicken broth that I stash in the freezer and some leftover cooked chicken. I didn’t even bother to fry the bread cubes, but used packaged picatostes, croutons.

Soothing, nourishing. I’m feeling better already.

Chicken Broth with Garnishes
Sopa de Picadillo

Serves 6.

Mint--essential garnish.

8 cups chicken broth
½ cup chopped cooked chicken
Cooked, diced carrots (optional)
Cooked chickpeas (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
4 tablespoons dry Sherry (optional)
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 slices bread, crusts removed and diced
3 ounces serrano ham, chopped
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
Sprigs of mint

Heat the chicken broth. Shortly before serving, add the chopped chicken, carrots and chickpeas, if using, to heat. Add salt and pepper, if necessary. Add the Sherry, if using.

Heat the oil in a skillet and fry the diced bread until crisp. Set aside.

Ladle the soup into individual bowls (usually shallow soup plates). Add chopped ham, egg and bread cubes to each serving. Garnish each with a sprig of mint.