Goat Cheese Class at Formaggio
Dan and I attend the Go Go Goaties cheese class hosted by Formaggio Kitchen in their Cambridge Annex this past Wednesday. As a big lover of goat cheese (the fresher and tangier, the better!), I was very excited to attend this class when it was first announced. My husband isn’t as much of a goat cheese lover as I am, but he did find some cheeses that he liked and we were both happy to learn new things about goat cheese.
The class was taught by Liz Bada and Tom Modica, both of whom work at the Formaggio store in Cambridge. They were incredibly knowledgeable about the cheeses, accoutrements, and wine pairings, and their passion for all things food and drink made them excellent instructors for this class. My main take away from this class is to pair light with light, meaning the lighter the goat cheese, the lighter the accoutrements and wine. Also, anything sweet makes a perfect pairing with goat cheese, which I already knew. (Honey is my favorite accoutrement with cheese — no matter which cheese I’m eating.)
We started the evening off sampling Valencay Frais from the Loire Valley in France (left) and Piper’s Pyramid from Capriole Farm in Greenville, Indiana (right), which were paired with Acacia honey and candied lemon peel, and finished with 2016 Domaine Augis Valencay white wine from the Loire Valley. The French classic Valencay Frais goat cheese is one of my all-time favorite cheeses, as it is very fresh and tangy. I love how it is molded into the shape of a pyramid with the top cut off and dusted with ash. I enjoyed it paired with the honey, which was light, thin, and delicious with this cheese. The Piper’s Pyramid was a play on the classic Valencay Frais, and I really enjoyed it. The paprika spice in the cheese added a nice twist to the flavor of this fresh cheese. While I wanted to love the candied lemon peel, it didn’t have much flavor for me to taste. I’m thinking the piece we were given was cut too small and I plan to buy some the next time I’m in the store to try it, as it sounds like it would be a perfect pairing with fresh goat cheese. The Valencay wine was a nice nod to the Valencay Frais goat cheese as it was made in the same area in France and was good.
Our second pairing consisted of Mothais sur Feuille from Poitou, France (left) and Nerina Robiola from Piemonte, Italy (right), which were paired with Ardeche wild blueberry jam and Lanza mandarin marmalade, and finished with 2016 Domaine Richou Anjou Blanc from the Loire Valley in France. While I’ve had the Mothais sur Feuille before and like it, I absolutely loved the Robiola with the very black rind. That goat cheese was as fresh as you can have it in the United States (the FDA restrictions on pasteurized cheese limits what can be imported from Europe) and was delicious. It was more creamy than the Valencay but still fresh and tangy. I really liked the wild blueberry jam paired with both cheeses and I thought Dan was going to go crazy over the mandarin marmalade (he was devastated to find out Formaggio was out of it but is glad to know they will be getting more in stock soon). The white wine pairing was good with this round of goat cheeses.
Next, we moved on to firmer goat cheeses and had a pairing of Old Goat Tomme from Twig Farm, West Cornwall (left), Vermont and Pantaleo from Sardegna, Italy (right), paired with La Strega del Triora strawberry and thyme jam and fresh kumquats, finished with 2017 Schloss Gobelsburg Rose from Kamptal, Austria. I’ve previously had the Old Goat Tomme and it was good. It is very crystallized for a firm goat cheese that gives it almost a crunch when you eat it and it was paired really well with the strawberry and thyme jam. I really enjoyed the Pantaleo cheese, as it was creamier than the Old Goat Tomme without the crystallization and I really liked that paired with the blueberry jam from the prior pairing. (I always save some of the cheese and accoutrements from prior pairings to mix and match them with the later pairings to find my favorite combos.) I was not a fan of the kumquat with both of these cheeses, as it was too bitter, which I can’t stand. I’m always on the fence with rose wine because sometimes it has too much tannin in it, which is what I don’t like about red wine. (I don’t like my tongue to feel fuzzy after I drink liquid.) This rose wine was fairly light but not my favorite.
Formaggio always saves the funk for the final pairing and they didn’t disappoint. We had a pairing of Mont St. Francis from Capriole Farm in Greenville, Indiana (left) and Blue delle Spazzecomino from Piemonte, Italy (right), paired with Giacomo cognac jam and toasted Elliot pecans, finished with 2016 Bernadat Fache Bugey Cerdon from Ain, France. Both of these cheeses were very funky and not something I enjoyed eating. The only pairing I thought was okay with the Mont St. Francis was the kumquat, as I think the sharpness of both foods canceled each other out. The Mont St. Francis is one of the funkiest cheeses I’ve ever tasted and had the classic old gym sock flavor you get with many cheeses. Blue cheese and I don’t typically get along, and this goat cheese wasn’t any different though it wasn’t as strong as some of the other blue cheeses I’ve had. The only think I liked about it was saying its name — “Spazz-e-co-me-no”. I didn’t think it paired well with anything. I also didn’t like the toasted pecan, as it was bitter and didn’t pair well with any of the cheeses. However, I did like the cognac jam, which tasted like the Fall with all the spices in it, which made it good with the firmer goat cheeses. The greatest surprise in this final round of tastings was the sparkling red wine. I never knew that red wine could be bubbly and was blown away by how much I loved it. It tasted like strawberries, which meant it paired beautifully with all the cheeses. I will definitely be buying a bottle (or two) of that wine to keep at home.
Overall, this was a great class and I can’t wait to pick up our order from the Cambridge store that includes some of the accoutrements and the sparking red wine over the weekend.
(Wednesday, April 11, 2018 @julieschultz79 #mycrazylifeblog)
