Friday nights are for indulgence and there is nothing I love more than eating rich cheese and drinking wine snuggled up with my husband. The dates are a new recipe for us that we loved. I first had something similar to this at a Spanish restaurant in Charlottesville called Mas. We've also had them at a few other Spanish tapas restaurants and this recipe really nailed it. We loved these with the other cheeses and wine.
Stilton-Stuffed Dates with Prosciutto
Source: Wine Bites by Barbara Scott-Goodman
Ingredients
12 dates, pitted
2-3 oz of Stilton cheese, crumbled
6 thin slices of prosciutto, cut in half lengthwise
Preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
Cut a lengthwise slit in each date. Stuff each one with just enough cheese to fill the cavity but not spill out. Pinch the stuffed dates closed.
Wrap each date in a piece of prosciutto and arrange them, seam-side down, on the prepared pan.
Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, and using tongs, carefully turn the dates. Return to the oven and bake until browned and crisp, about 10 minutes longer.
Note: Working with prosciutto can be frustrating because it is so thin. I kept the meat on the paper when handling it. I cut it on the paper and placed the date on the end of each slice and just rolled it along the strip.
We paired these dates with the rest of the Stilton (which also featured cranberries!), Emmental cheese (a hard Swiss), and Le Petite Creme (a soft cheese like a Brie but is almost liquid in the center, even fresh out of the refrigerator making it perfect for spreading).
Stilton is an English Blue cheese, the official type made only in 6 dairies. There is a blue vein that runs throughout the cheese representing the penicillin mold. It is paired best with a port or sherry but by that token, a sweet white wine as well. (Source: Cheese & Wine by Janet Fletcher).
Stilton-Stuffed Dates with Prosciutto
Source: Wine Bites by Barbara Scott-Goodman
Ingredients
12 dates, pitted
2-3 oz of Stilton cheese, crumbled
6 thin slices of prosciutto, cut in half lengthwise
Preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
Cut a lengthwise slit in each date. Stuff each one with just enough cheese to fill the cavity but not spill out. Pinch the stuffed dates closed.
Wrap each date in a piece of prosciutto and arrange them, seam-side down, on the prepared pan.
Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, and using tongs, carefully turn the dates. Return to the oven and bake until browned and crisp, about 10 minutes longer.
Note: Working with prosciutto can be frustrating because it is so thin. I kept the meat on the paper when handling it. I cut it on the paper and placed the date on the end of each slice and just rolled it along the strip.
We paired these dates with the rest of the Stilton (which also featured cranberries!), Emmental cheese (a hard Swiss), and Le Petite Creme (a soft cheese like a Brie but is almost liquid in the center, even fresh out of the refrigerator making it perfect for spreading).
Stilton is an English Blue cheese, the official type made only in 6 dairies. There is a blue vein that runs throughout the cheese representing the penicillin mold. It is paired best with a port or sherry but by that token, a sweet white wine as well. (Source: Cheese & Wine by Janet Fletcher).
We eat our cheese on bread and crackers and pair it with apples or pears, honey, apple jelly, apricot preserves, and usually chopped dates or figs. We love to play around with the different combinations you can make to see how the taste of the cheese changes. We finished it all off with a petite Shriaz and a "Sweet Red."
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