I recently had the pleasure of attending a Cheesemaking Day at the premises of the most northerly UK cheese producer – Shetland Cheese Ltd. on the west side of Shetland. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience which you can read all about on my Taste of Shetland post.
A selection of Shetland Cheese, with St. Ninians in the foreground.
Lunch was provided on the day and this is where I tried their award winning St. Ninians soft cheese for the first time. What a superb, creamy delicious cheese it is too. This cheese won the Bronze award in the British Cheese Awards 2013. I couldn’t leave their premises without taking one home with me (and some of their Monterey Mild for grilled cheese sandwich purposes!)
A few days later, come lunch time, I found I had some two-day-old home made sourdough bread needing used up. A quick inspection of the refrigerator contents came up with the ingredients for bruschetta, and I thought I’d experiment with the St. Ninians cheese and some smoked Maldon sea salt I’d recently been sent to try out.
This recipe is what I came up with. The combination of ripe, juicy tomatoes, garlic, red onion, basil and St. Ninians cheese is absolutely wonderful and the smoked sea salt takes it to a whole new level. I know this smoked sea salt is going to feature quite frequently in my future recipes. I love the depth of flavour it imparts to a meal. I’m going to have to convince our local wholefoods shop to start stocking it!
Maldon 
was hosting a #FlavourofSpring competition in March and they were sending out samples of their products for bloggers to play with. Unfortunately mine didn’t get delivered until well after the competition closed, but here’s my Flavour of Spring post nonetheless.
I am sharing this recipe with four blogging challenges this month. First there’s April’s Family Foodies, co-hosted by Louisa over at Eat Your Veg and Vanesther over at Bangers & Mash. This month’s theme is all about healthy snacks, and this recipe certainly would make a healthy snack or quick lunch.
Secondly
there is Veg Box, co-hosted by Tina at The Spicy Pear and Nanya at Citrus Spice UK. This month’s theme is onions.
I’m also linking up with my own No Waste Food Challenge, as this is a great way to use up several day old sourdough bread. This month the challenge is hosted by Ness over at JibberJabberUK.
Lastly, I am linking up with Javelin Warrior’s fantastic Made with Love, Monday’s challenge, a round up of made-from-scratch and made-with-love recipes.
Bruschetta with St. Ninians Soft Cheese & Smoked Sea Salt
Ingredients
- 235 grams fresh ripe tomatoes deseeded and chopped
- 30 grams red onion finely sliced
- 1 garlic clove finely chopped
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- smoked sea salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper freshly ground, to taste
- handful fresh basil leaves torn
- 100 grams St. Ninians soft cheese
- 4 slices sourdough bread
- butter
- 80 grams baby leaf salad to serve
- fresh basil leaves to garnish
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Instructions
- Combine tomatoes, red onion, garlic, olive oil and torn basil leaves together in a small bowl. Season with smoked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Set aside.
- Lightly toast the sourdough bread and lightly butter one side, or if you have a grill like the Tefal Optigrill, butter both sides of the bread and grill until toasted, about 4 minutes.
- Top each slice of sourdough bread with 1/4 of the tomato mixture.
- Arrange small slices of the St. Ninians soft cheese over the top of the tomato mixture and pop under a grill until it starts to melt.
- Garnish with basil leaves and serve with a fresh babyleaf salad.
Notes
Environmental Information
Daydream adventurer. Expat Canadian. Foodie. Calls Shetland home, for now. One eye is always on the horizon.
Heather Haigh says
That looks fresh, vibrant, and very tasty.
Paul Wilson says
Looks delicious.
Paul Wilson says
That would make a great snack.
rebecca nisbet says
wow, this looks delicious! you have some gorgeous looking recipes on your blog!
Elizabeth says
Aw thank you! I do try 😀
Tracy Nixon says
I have made this a few times now to serve with salad and at bbqs! I would defo recommend it to any of your readers and I have also pointed my family in the direction of your blog – thank you!
Tracy Nixon says
I did enjoy this in the garden with a bottle of wine!
Tracy Nixon says
This looks gorgeous to enjoy in the garden with a bottle of wine!
Lou, Eat Your Veg says
Loving your new look Elizabeth. Going to have a little look around after this, all looks very modern and inviting! And what a delicious bruchetta recipe. I bet the cheese-making day was fascinating, not to mention tasty. Thanks so much for linking up to April’s Family Foodies ‘Healthy Snacks’ event.
Elizabeth says
Thanks Louisa! 🙂 The cheesemaking day was fantastic and I am really looking forward to eating the final results. They’re still maturing away nicely at the creamery!
Johanna GGG says
How exciting to go to a cheesemaking workshop – sounds fascinating though were you able to make a cheese in a day – I thought they needed some time to develop?
And I love the bruschetta (by the way, your last two posts haven’t come through my blogroll on my blog which I used as a feed – but the first one has – the blog roll seems to pick random blogs to ignore new feeds so will just try and drop over occasionally – though have decided on a go-slow blogging month this month!)
Johanna GGG says
and I forgot to say that the smoked salt sounds exciting – will look forward to seeing it more around here
Elizabeth says
I am absolutely in love with the smoked sea salt!
Elizabeth says
I’ve had some problems with my rss feed with the transfer from Blogger to self-hosted WordPress, but I think it should work fine now. Do you follow me via Bloglovin’ because that hasn’t been updating since the move. All fixed today though!
Elizabeth says
Oh, I meant to say about the cheesemaking workshop – we made the cheese in the one day but it’s been left at the creamery to mature for 6-8 weeks. Jay will deliver the matured cheese to us when it’s ready – I can’t wait! 😀
Dominic says
wow Elizabeth, this looks so fresh and delicious… I love St Ninians but i’ve only had it once… a gorgeous cheese and I bet it’s great with that wonderful smoked salt too… gorgeous!
Galina V says
Delightful! I love sourdough bread, if I have any getting stale, I use it for croutons. Bruschetta is one of life’s pleasures.
Isabelle says
I’m so happy that you are back now ! Congratulation for the new version of your blog, it’s really nice ! This bruschetta looks wonderful. However, could you tell me if I could replace this special cheese by another one ? I have absolutely no idea of the taste of St Ninians cheese : here in France it seems difficult to find it …
Elizabeth says
Thank you Isabelle, I really appreciate your kind words 🙂 I would suspect that the St. Ninians cheese could be replaced by any soft round cheese of your choice, or even mozzarella (which is what I use quite often!).
Ness (@jibberjabberuk) says
Basil is my favourite herb and I love anything toasted, particularly sourdough. A lovely entry for this month’s No Waste Food Challenge.
Elizabeth says
I’m new to the whole sourdough bread thing, but I do quite love it toasted! I’ve got one of those swish new Tefal Optigrills which makes a wicked job out of toasting bread, lines and all 🙂
Kirsty - Hijacked by Twins says
Mmm these look delicious, I love anything with cheese x #MadeWithLuv
Elizabeth says
Thank you, and me too! 🙂
Javelin Warrior says
What a beautiful starter, Elizabeth. I love bruschetta and I’m so impressed with the homemade sourdough and the soft local cheese. This sounds so tasty and a perfect way to celebrate the arrival of warmer weather…
Elizabeth says
So glad you like the sound of it Mark 🙂 Now, where is this warmer weather you speak of?!
Keep Calm and Fanny On says
Ooooh that St Ninians cheese looks lovely and squishy!
Elizabeth says
It is, and it is so lovely! 🙂
Chris says
That would be a lunch I would gladly go for and … I always go for the garlic rubbing part. Apart from that, I am always ready for new cheese.
Elizabeth says
I’m a big garlic fan too 🙂 The St. Ninians cheese is superb and it will be a regular item in my kitchen from now on. Lovely stuff!