Foja de Noce
When the holidays are approaching most all cooks and bakers I know begin thinking about festive treats and Christmas cookies. But not me. I think cheese. I begin collecting Gruyère for pasta, Fontina for savory tarts, Reblochon for potatoes, Époisses for hors d’oeuvres, and raclette and fondue cheeses for special feasts with family and friends.
Thanks to reading blogs, about food, of course, I recently came across one called Di Bruno Bros. From the blog I discovered their website, simply called dibruno.com.
The Di Bruno story is a typical one from 1930, with 2 Italian brothers moving from Italy to Philadelphia via Ellis Island. There they opened the successful Di Bruno Bros. grocery store, but in 1965 the store became primarily a cheese shop. Eventually the sons and other Di Bruno relatives took over the business, and they expanded the products with international gourmet items, and opened new store locations.
Also because of the blog, I discovered and ordered the cookbook Di Bruno Bros. House of Cheese – a guide to wedges, recipes, and pairings. The author is Tenaya Darlington, who also blogs as Madame Fromage.
Because of where I live, I have to be my own cheesemonger. My local grocery store does a decent job, but they’re not going to put out cheeses that the bulk of the population won’t buy. So I make purchases when I travel, and order online a lot, as much as my diet allows. French cheeses are my favorites overall, but the world of artisanal cheeses in the US has really grown, which is a fabulous trend.
So the book appealed to me because cheeses are described in delightful prose. I love the names of the chapters, such as ‘The Quiet Ones,” “Vixens” and “The Stinkers.” But also there are recipes associated with some of the cheeses, provided by the Di Bruno Bros. kitchen, and also notes from their professional cheesemongers. So what’s not to love!
All of my favorite cheeses that I mentioned above are in this book, but I also love that they wrote about two of my favorite American cheeses. One is an old standby for my family – Humboldt Fog by Cypress Grove Chèvre, and a recent discovery – Red Hawk by Cowgirl Creamery.
In the introduction, the author writes, quoting a cheesemaker, that “making a cheese with pasteurized milk is like trying to bake a cake with hard-boiled eggs.” Love it.
To get to the point of this post, one cheese in the book especially caught my attention – Foja de Noce – an Italian sheep’s milk cheese that I’d never heard of. It’s wrapped in walnut leaves and aged in mountain caves. Drinks suggested for pairing include Barolo, a pint of amber, or Scotch ale. Hmmmm.
Here is the cheese. It’s a Pecorino, and has a delightful flavor, similar to an aged Manchego. To quote the author, which will give you an idea of her writing style, “it has all the primal whomp of a nutty, aged sheep’s milk cheese, and yet there is so much more going on: a lazy kind of sweetness, a buttery stealth that lingers, a dreamy, woodsy depth.”
The recipe using this cheese was intriguing to me because it’s a tapenade which not only contains olives, which is to be expected, but made with Foja de noce and smoked almonds. I’ve posted on tapenade before on the blog, and I’ve only been familiar with olive-heavy tapenades. So i knew i just had to make it. It was a good excuse to try the cheese, besides.
I’m typing the recipe as it’s written, but please take note below on my changes.
Sicilian Olive and Smoked Almond Tapenade
/From Di Bruno Bros. House of Cheese
1/4 pound Foja de Noce, grated (I crumbled)
1/3 cup smoked almonds (I’m assuming whole almonds)
1/3 cup dry-cured Sicilian olives*, pitted
1 small garlic clove
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Place all of the ingredients in a food processor.
Puree until the mixture is finely chopped, about the consistency of pesto. This photo shows the tapenade on its way to become pesto-like in consistency.
You may need to add a couple tablespoons of water if the paste is too thick. Because I most likely used more olives, no extra liquid was required (see note). Covered, this tapenade will keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
The author suggest serving the tapenade with pita crisps or baguette rounds, and also suggests using it as a spread in a sandwich. Delicious.
I served the tapenade with browned flatbread triangles.
The recipe states that Pecorino or Parmesan could replace the Foja de Noce.
* I used Castelvetrano olives, which aren’t dry cured, but they’re the only Sicilian olives I could get my hands on.
note: I’m not going to rant (again) on poorly written recipes, but honestly, 1/3 cup of olives? About four olives fit into my measuring cup and so I gave up and decided to pit them first, then I weighed out 3 ounces. It perhaps wasn’t quite the right ratio, but the end result was delicious nonetheless. The rest of the recipe I followed exactly, because I was so intrigued with the ingredients, especially the smoked almonds and honey.
verdict: I will make this. Over and over again. It’s my new favorite spread.
This reminds me of a great tapenade I had recently – yum!
I’ve never seen one with cheese! And I’m not sure I’ve seen smoked almonds in recipes, either!
This looks amazing, especially the cheese! I only had a slice of Manchego today, poor me ;-)
Manchego is such a perfect cheese….
Cheese and smoked almonds in tapenade sounds perfect to me. I love the bit about it being an Italian sheep’s milk cheese wrapped in walnut leaves and aged in mountain caves. All this and a pint of Scotch ale….
I know! it’s fabulous.
Intriguing combination of ingredients. I’ve never heard of that cheese before, so I guess I’ll have to substitute with pecorino to try this.
I have no details in how this cheese differs from a pecorino, when it is a pecorino. But do try it if you come across it. I’ve been nibbling on it every day.
Hi Mimi, I googled the cheese as it made me curious, and my results so far have made me more curious :-)
First of all, I can’t access dibruno.com, so I can’t read what they write about it (I get an “access forbidden” error message; very strange).
Second, “foja de noce” is not standard Italian (which would be “foglia di noce” or “foglie di noce”). It could be a dialect, but it is strange that it only seems to be listed as “foja de noce” on English-speaking sites and is called “Pecorino stagionato in foglie di noce” (Pecorino matured in walnut leaves) on all Italian sites I have found.
Third, the information in Italian is about a cheese from Tuscany that is matured in terracotta vessels with walnuts leaves, whereas the American sources I can access write about caves and Emilia-Romagna.
Does your cheese list a name or location of the producer?
You know, I was wondering about the de vs. di thing too. I’ll have to look in the book. I’ll get back you. I’ll look online, too.
OMG that looks amazing. I love appetizer recipes and am looking for some unique ones. The book sounds like a keeper! I loved the photo on the cover.
Thanks! It’s pretty with the green olives!
Bookmarking! Bookmarking! Bookmarking! This is my kind of appetizer for any season! Thanks Mimi, this one is a beauty! :D
It really is seasonless. Even better!
“primal whomp” love it! I want to eat this right now even though it’s bedtime. Looks sooooo good.
If you’re a cheese lover, it doesn’t really matter what time of day it is, does it?!!!
It does not!
Awesome recipe Mimi, I would never think to add cheese to a tapenade. Great post I really like reading about the history of produce and the people who make it. Have a great weekend!
Thank you! It is really a fabulous recipe.
Wow – unusual!
Have you heard of this cheese?
A while back eight of us, plus two kids, rented a villa in Tuscany. We, the fellas, went into the village to get groceries (via a bar, I admit) and came back with a wheel of finest pecorino costing £80 amongst other things. We weren’t trusted to go again…but it was delicious and lasted the week. Lovely pesto-like spread though Mimi – inspired!
Wonderful. Definitely worth the cost!
I would love to go. Why have I never heard of this place before???!!!
My younger daughter just moved to NYC. I would bet there’s a store there, but I’ll have to check. Can’t wait!
I know – that’s what intrigued me about this recipe!
Sadly, cheese is still caloric…
Cheese glorious cheese! :) Cheese is always on my list for the holidays. I’ll have to look for that book.
it’s good exposure to cheeses you haven’t met yet….
Oh my daughter would move in with you…her future in laws nicknamed her ‘cheese’ she loves it so much. We were so lucky to recently have a Wegman’s market open the next town over. Mimi, you would be in heaven – they have over 1,000 different cheese in their cheese department & the people who work in that department spend a month in training learning about & tasting every cheese they sell. It is the most incredible display you’ve ever seen & you can sample ANY cheese – even the very unique ones that sell for over $100/quarter lb. No problem at all, they’ll open up the package for you & you can sample as many as you want. of course after all the sampling, you feel guilty if you don’t buy anything so we usually come home with a nice bag of very different cheese.
WOW. I’m so jealous!!!!!
it was pretty fabulous!
Wow…”a dreamy, woodsy depth”….I’m with you…love the prose.
It’s entertaining and humorous prose. Not obnoxious arrogance.
I don’t think I’d ever had them before, and I was looking specifically for a Sicilian olive for this recipe. They are fabulous!