THE NIBBLE BLOG: Products, Recipes & Trends In Specialty Foods


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Food Fun: Aldi’s Christmas-Flavored Goat Cheese Logs


[1] Aldi’s Eggnog Goat Cheese Log (photos #1 and #2 © Aldi).


[2] The gingerbread log. All three log flavors are four ounces.


[3] Serve with crackers that aren’t noticeably salted; plus honey, raisins and other dried fruits, and nuts (photo © Belle Chevre).

 

You never know what surprise items you’ll find at an Aldi store. In the cheese aisle, goat cheese lovers can currently find goat logs in three fun holiday flavors that are new this season:

  • Cranberry Stuffing Goat Cheese
  • Gingerbread Goat Cheese
  • Eggnog Goat Cheese
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    That makes for sweet goat cheese on a cheese plate or a charcuterie board, with nuts and fruits. You can serve them with graham crackers for dessert. Or, how about these recipe ideas:
     
     
    WAYS TO SERVE SWEET GOAT CHEESE

  • For breakfast: With bagels, croissants and toast, in a cheese omelet, mixed into scrambled egg batter or sprinkled on top of the cooked eggs.
  • On a sandwich: These sweet cheese flavors pair with ham and turkey.
  • Pasta: Create a dessert pasta dish with bowties, small shells or other shape, raspberry purée, and crumbled sweet goat cheese. You can grate chocolate over the top!
  • With salads: Crumble atop mixed greens or a spinach salad. Add sliced or matchstick beets: They’re a beautiful pairing with any fresh goat cheese, as are pecans, pistachios, walnuts and other nuts.
  • For dinner: Stuff into chicken breasts and ravioli. Crumble onto asparagus and grilled vegetables. Stuff a baked potato or sweet potato.
  • For dessert: Serve a disc drizzled with honey, with or without nuts and fresh or dried fruit (fresh berries pair well).
  • Baked: In quiches, soufflés, tartlets and turnovers.
  •  
    > Head to Aldi.com for the location nearest to you.
     
     
    MORE GOAT CHEESE LOG RECIPES

  • “Edible Art” Decorated Goat Cheese Logs
  • Herb-, Fruit- & Spice-Coated Goat Cheese Logs
  • Honey Drizzled Goat Cheese Logs

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    > THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHEESE
     
     
    > THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF GOAT CHEESE
     
     
    > THE HISTORY OF CHEESE
     
     
    > GOAT CHEESE PAIRINGS WITH [OTHER] FOOD & WINE

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    *Notes from Aldi: Available while quantities last. Items are limited and may not be available in all stores. We reserve the right to limit quantities sold. Prices and labels may vary by location.

     

     
     

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    Gourmet Omnom Chocolate From Iceland For Christmas & All Winter Long

    Omnom, the delightful Icelandic chocolate line that was our recent Top Pick Of The Week, has a special holiday collection of three bars—dark, milk and white chocolate—that are a treat for the chocolate lover.

    The Winter Collection draws inspiration from Icelandic festive traditions. Packaged in Omnom’s stunning artwork, as are all the bars, (we think the outer packaging is too nice to throw away), it’s a feast to look at as well as to eat.
     
     
    CHOCOLATE BARS FOR THE HOLIDAYS & WINTER

    The Winter Collection 2021

    The Winter Collection includes three chocolate bars (photo #1):

  • Dark Nibs + Raspberry, a dazzling combination of flavors that you can [fortunately] purchase year-round (photo #2).
  • Milk + Cookies in a holiday version, with the cookie portion slightly enhanced with gingerbread slices.
  • Spiced White + Caramel, the caramel being crunchy tiny chips that stud the white chocolate (photo #3).
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    Individual Bars

    Of course, you can buy individual bars for stocking stuffers. It’s hard to choose, so here are our must-have favorites:

  • For dark chocolate lovers: Dark Nibs + Raspberry
  • For milk chocolate lovers: Sea Salted Almonds
  • For coffee lovers: Coffee + Milk
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    There are also three-bar collections of single origin chocolate:

  • Dark Chocolate: Madagascar 66%, Nicaragua 73%, Tanzania 70%
  • Milk Chocolate: Dark Milk of Tanzania 65%, Milk of Madagascar 45% Milk of Nicaragua 50%
  • Favourite Collection: Coffee + Milk, Lakkrís [Licorice] + Sea Salt, Madagascar 66%
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    GET YOUR OMNOM BARS & GIFTS

    Head to OmnomChocolate.com.

    Don’t worry: It’s already here in the U.S. headquarters. You don’t have to worry about shipping from Iceland.

    Lay in a supply to warm you on cold winter nights.
     
     
    MORE ABOUT CHOCOLATE
     
    > CHOCOLATE TYPES & TERMS
     
    > CHOCOLATE HISTORY

     
    [1] The Winter Collection Box holds three flavored bars, in dark, milk and white chocolate (all photos © Omnom Chocolate).


    [2] Dark chocolate with cacao nibs and dried raspberry bits is a heavenly combination of flavors.


    [3] The winter white chocolate bar has bits of crunchy caramel.

     
     
     
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    Sfoglini Organic Artisan Pasta Gifts & Pasta Of The Month Club


    [1] Sfoglini artisan pasta makes beautiful shapes like these reginetti, ribbon-shape pasta, shown here with black truffles. It’s a gourmet’s fantasy realized (all photos © Sfoglini Pasta except as noted).


    [2] The Pasta-Of-The-Month Club delivers two boxes of artisan pasta each month.


    [3] The famous dish Cacio e Pepe, madw with trumpet pasta. Here’s the recipe.


    [4] Flower shaped rye trumpets are made from stone ground organic whole rye flour, grown in New York’s Hudson Valley.


    [5] These cuttlefish spaccatelli are made with black cuttlefish ink. Cuttlefish and squid are cousins. Here’s the difference. Spaccatelli, sometimes called strozzapreti (“priest’s collars”), resemble a rolled-up scroll.


    [6] One of our favorite shapes, zucca, Italian for pumpkins, have eye appeal and are a shape to sink one’s teath into.


    [7] Malloreddus, sometimes called gnocchetti sardi (small Sardinian gnocchi), are popular Sardinian pasta in the shape of thin ribbed shells. Malloreddus is derived from the Latin for “small morsel.”

     

    For a pasta lover with a good palate, there’s no better gift than artisan pasta made with old-school Italian techniques: the best wheat, traditional bronze dies and plates, slow-drying at a low temperature to preserve both flavor and nutrients. (The original pasta noodles were hung over rods and lines to air dry.)

    The result: great flavor and an appropriately rough texture that makes the sauce stick.

    Sfoglini (sfo-LEE-nee) pastas are made with organic grains grown on North American farms and milled in the U.S.

    It’s our Top Pick of The Week.

    The dough is extruded through bronze dies, slow-dried, and packaged in New York’s Hudson Valley, an artisan food mecca.

    The wheat and other grains are the best in North American. The grains are organic, and include conventional semolina plus einkorn, emmer, rye, spelt, and whole-grain flours.

    In Italian, a sfoglina is someone who makes sfoglia, a family of Italian pastas.

    A sfoglina (sfo-LEE-na) is historically seen as a middle-aged woman who kneads and spreads out the dough with a rolling pin on a pastry board.

    At Sfoglini, there are two men who carry on the tradition: chef Steve Gonzalez and creative director Scott Ketchum.

    Every sfoglina from the old country would be proud of their work.
     
     
    ARTISAN PASTA VARIETIES

    Oh, what a choice of shapes, flavors, and grains! Where to begin? We had to use the “eeny, meeny, miney, mo” technique.

    While it may be relatively easy to eyeball this list, when you see all the boxes on the website, the going gets tough.

    Semolina Shapes

  • Beet Fusilli
  • Cascatelli
  • Cavatello
  • Cuttlefish Ink Spaccatelli
  • Fusilli
  • Macaroni
  • Porcini Trumpets
  • Radiators
  • Reginetti
  • Rigatoni
  • Saffron Malloreddus
  • Small Shells
  • Spaccatelli
  • Sriracha Fusilli
  • Trumpets
  • Zucca
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    Semolina Ribbon Pasta

  • Bucatini
  • Chitarra
  • Fettuccine
  • Spaghetti
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    Other Grains/Blends

  • Einkorn Macaroni
  • Emmer Reginetti
  • Hemp Radiators
  • Hemp Rigatoni
  • Hemp Zucca
  • Rye Trumpets
  • Spelt Fusilli
  • Whole Grain Blend Radiators
  • Whole Grain Blend Reginetti
  • Whole Grain Blend Trumpets
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    GIFT SETS & PASTA-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB

    There are a number of gift sets, including a Kids Pasta Craft Kit, Lobster Dinner Kit and Ultimate Mac & Cheese Kit.

    There’s also a pasta-of-the-month club, for 3- or 6-month subscriptions.

    Each month’s contents are a surprise, including one box of Sfoglini organic semolina pasta, one box of Sfoglini specialty pasta (think grains, flavors, and limited editions).

    Recipe cards are included with each box, with inspiration for scrumptious dishes. You can add ingredients and choose sauces to customize each recipe.

    In order to keep the boxes vegan, the Cuttlefish Spaccatelli, made with cuttlefish ink, won’t be included.

    Thus, vegans, vegetarians, and those with seafood allergies can enjoy each box of pasta without worry.

    (There are no gluten-free options.)

    There are also quite a few recipes on the website.
     
     
    BUY THEM AT SFOGLINI.COM & FINE RETAILERS NATIONWIDE.
     
     
    > THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PASTA
     
     
    > THE HISTORY OF PASTA
     
     
     
     
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