Two fresh and simple summer ViaVio artisan cheese salads

These recipes, from our friends at the Outstanding Food Producer Awards, are a celebration of spring and artisan NZ cheese. 

Recipe guru Kathy Paterson has taken inspiration from a meal at South Australian Restaurant, Bottega Bandito, creating two small plates packed with flavour using fresh ViaVio cheese. Kathy says the simplicity of these dishes is striking and shines the light on keeping things simple. 

She suggests serving either of these salads for lunch with crusty bread and a crisp green salad—if you’re super peckish, you can add cured meats and olives too.

Stracciatella di Burrata Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 pot Viavio Stracciatella di Burrata (a stringy mixture of cream, mozzarella, and salt). A special rich fresh cheese unlike any other.
• 2-3 large, very ripe tomatoes, very finely sliced
• 1 shallot very finely sliced
• Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• Aleppo pepper, for sprinkling

Method:

• Roughly spread the fresh cheese out onto a plate. Top with the tomato slices, then the shallot slices.
• Drizzle over olive oil and sprinkle with a little Aleppo pepper.
• Serve straight away.

Stracchino & Orange Salad

A popular spreadable cheese from Northern Italy, stracchino has no rind. With a soft and creamy texture and a mild, delicate flavour, the taste is a little sour, between cheese and yoghurt.

Ingredients:

• 200g ViaVio Stracchino
• 2-3 oranges, peeled and very finely sliced
• 1 shallot very finely sliced
• Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• Togarishi (Japanese spice mixture), for sprinkling

Method:

• Roughly spread the fresh cheese out onto a plate. Top with the orange slices, then the shallot slices.
• Drizzle over olive oil and sprinkle with a little togarashi.
• Serve straight away.

Recipe from OutstandingFoodProducer.co.nz.