Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Food Columnist: Two gorgeously Greek recipes that use versatile feta cheese

Post Thumbnail

Deborah Ratcliffe regularly contributes recipes to the Press and Journal’s food and drink magazine, The Menu. Here she shares two ways to use feta

Greek feta cheese with its distinctive, creamy, lightly acidy/tangy salty taste is usually made from sheep, or a mixture of sheep and goats’ milk, although it can also be bought made from cows’ milk.

It’s normally bought pre-packed in slabs or ready-cubed in jars of oil, often flavoured with herbs or with olives, and can be quite salty with a real sharpness to the flavour.

I regard it as one of my staple cheeses, mainly because it’s so versatile.

For example: simply crumbled straight from the packet over a salad; as an essential ingredient in the traditional Greek spanakopita recipe – a delicious marriage of spinach, feta and filo pastry.

It’s also perfect for quick delicious nibbles – halved baby cherry tomatoes, speared on cocktail sticks, alternating with robustly flavoured black olives and a cube of feta.

Or spear cubes on a cocktail stick, add a Parma ham roll and a slither of basil and serve with marinade from the jar drizzled over and some cubes of bread to mop it up.


Salmon with feta and pancetta

(Serves 2) 

Ingredients

  • 10 roughly chopped black olives
  • 200g tinned chopped tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp tomato puree
  • 1 flat tsp sugar
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 250g skinless salmon fillets, cut into 2.5cm pieces
  • 50g feta cheese roughly crumbled
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 slices pancetta

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6.
  2. Add the olives, tomatoes, tomato puree and sugar to a casserole dish.
  3. Lightly season and mix well together.
  4. Add the salmon pieces then crumble over the feta.
  5. Drizzle with olive oil.
  6. Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the fish is just cooked.
  7. Meanwhile, heat a frying pan until hot.
  8. Add the pancetta, quickly cook on both sides till crispy.
  9. To serve, place the fish in a serving dish and crumble the pancetta over the top.

Oven-roasted tomatoes with feta and olives

Ingredients

  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 6 ripe tomatoes
  • 1 tsp fresh chopped thyme leaves
  • 1½ tsp sea salt flakes
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 150g feta cheese marinated in oil with black and green olives

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 240C/gas mark 9. Oil a shallow baking tray with a little oil.
  2. Cut the tomatoes in half, remove the seeds and the inside membrane.
  3. Pat dry then place cut side up on the tray. Drizzle over 2 tbsp of the oil.
  4. Sprinkle over the thyme, salt and a good twist or two of pepper.
  5. Roast for 15 minutes then turn the heat down to 150C/gas mark 2.
  6. When shrivelled to roughly half their original size remove from the oven then cool.
  7. To serve, cut each of the half tomatoes in half.
  8. Place in a deep serving dish, add the olives, feta and seasoning to taste.
  9. Toss around well and drizzle over any remaining oil.