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SNACK ATTACK: Masala toasted cheese
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
SNACK ATTACK: Masala toasted cheese
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| All photos l Felicia D'Ambrosio |
| Toasted cheese on naan with fried mint leaves. |
When eating NOW is my first priority, I beeline to the staples I always keep on hand � Locatelli pecorino-romano cheese, butter or olive oil and bread. Unlike a grilled cheese, which is a serious meal, this little toasted, open-faced snack is luxurious but doesn't require three hours at the gym after you've eaten it.
Here I utilize a weird method � applying a grated hard cheese (pecorino-romano) directly to the surface of a hot, non-stick pan, then topping the cheese with a single piece of bread. My favorite is Trader Joe's garam masala naan, a lightly spiced flat bread that is cheap and freezes well. You can use any sort of bread or bread-like product here, as long as it is flat: half of a roll, a pita, a slice of Wonder, a slice of a baguette, even a big cracker � they all work.
The cheese layer gets lightly toasted and crisp and forms a beautifully salty crust atop the warm bread. I fried a few mint leaves in the residual fat to top mine up, but you can add anything that looks tasty. This toasted cheese snack is the platform to build lunch upon, or just to keep you going when you only have three minutes to ingest calories and go.
Super easy method and how-to photos, after the jump.
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Basic Toasted Cheese
Go Get This:
One slice bread of choice
One tsp. butter or olive oil
2 or 3 tbsp. pecorino-romano or other very hard, grated cheese
Now Do This:
Heat a saut� or frying pan over medium heat. Add butter or oil; if it sizzles but does not burn, the temperature is right.
Sprinkle cheese directly on pan in the rough shape of your piece of bread. Allow to set for 10 seconds or so, then press slice of bread directly on top of cheese.
Leave it alone for two minutes, then oh-so-gently flip over with a spatula. If cheese is golden and crisply toasted, it's done. Let the un-cheesed side crisp for thirty seconds in the hot pan, then remove from heat.
Garnish with whatever you want (herbs are nice) or not. Eat hot, right away. Feel impressed with yourself for turning three ingredients into such a stylish snack.
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