A Summertime Treat

The weather is warming up and it’s getting too nice to cook inside.  Why heat the house on sunny summer days and warm summer nights when you can fire up the grill instead?  We’ve curated some yummy ways keep the grill going, the house cool, and spice up any dish with our piquant AmaGorg Gorgonzola cheese!

Have a Pizza Party!

Don’t resort to delivery – throw that pie on the grill instead!  Since the grill can reach much higher temperatures than your home oven, it can act like a real pizza oven.  If grilled pizza is new to you, do not fret – follow these helpful tutorials so you don’t get burned.  We like the step-by step guides from Bon Appétit or The Kitchn.  If you are hesitant to place the dough directly on the grill, you can seek out a recipe for a cast iron grilled pizza instead.  No “knead” to rush – you can ease into this.  Once you master this method of pizza grilling, it’s time to talk toppings.  We love to add summertime veggies and, of course, a healthy layer of AmaGorg.  Check out our go-to grilled pizza here.

 

Top it with Gorg!

Pizza isn’t the use for Gorg as a topping!  Making burgers or steaks?  Reach for a wedge or crumbles of AmaGorg and top your dish as you take it off the grill!  Grilling chicken?  AmaGorg goes great on top of chicken breast.  Keeping it meatless?  Grill summer squash, asparagus, tomatoes and corn and top with AmaGorg and balsamic for a tangy side dish, or chop up the veggies and have a summer vegetable salad with a bright lemon vinaigrette and AmaGorg.  For dessert, keep it light and simple by crumbling AmaGorg over our favorite local honey and fresh berries in a bowl.  It’s light, sweet, and decadent.

 

Celebrate the Red, White and Blue (well, Gorg….)

Appetizers are a must-have at all BBQs. Now, we love a good old fashion cheeseboard and bowls of various flavors of chips to nosh on, but sometimes you need to step up your app game.  Enter, grilled poppers!  If you like it spicy, you can use jalapeno peppers or if you want to keep it a bit sweeter, try peppadew peppers.  These little sweet peppers are similar in size to a cherry tomato and are much milder than jalapenos.  Plus, these are perfectly patriotic for the Fourth, and can be prepped a day or two in advance of your party.

This recipe calls for peppers, cream cheese, AmaGorg, bacon and toothpicks. Below are the basic steps:

1. First, prep your peppers.  If using jalapenos, slice in half and deseed (we’d wear gloves).  For peppadews, remove from brine and pat dry inside and out.
2. Next, mix together room temperature block cream cheese and AmaGorg.  We like a 3:1 ratio.  For every 3 oz of cream cheese, use 1 oz of AmaGorg.  If you like it more Gorg-y, go heavier on the AmaGorg or vice versa.  You are going to need about 1-2 tsp of the cheese mix for each pepper.
3. Then, fill each pepper with the cheese mix and fully wrap in bacon, ensuring all the cheese is covered.  Secure with toothpicks.  (Since we are grilling, we recommend lightly pre-cooking the bacon as it will help reduce those grease flare-ups and make your bacon a bit crispier. If you forget to do this, no worries; just watch them as you cook them!)
4. Place peppers on grill at medium-low heat cheese-side UP and grill just until bacon begins to crisp (about 5-6 minutes), then flip.  Let them cook for another 12-15 minutes or so (until the bacon is fully cooked) and take off the grill.
5. Lastly, allow to cool just a bit (that cream cheese gorgonzola mix will be molten hot) and serve.  Oh, and give a friendly reminder to your guests that there are toothpicks in these poppers!

 

The possibilities are endless because Gorgonzola plays well with so many grill favorites!  Happy Gorg grilling!