Christmas Appetiser Italian Cheese Log

Terrific easy, make-ahead economical alternative to expensive cheese platters – and bursting with the holiday cheer!!!

A FESTIVE CHRISTMAS APPETIZER IDEA!

Bringing on some Christmas cheer with this festive Italian Cheese Log!! It’s a far cry from your usual cheeseball with a handful of token flavourings. This one is jam packed with flavour…. loaded with Italian flavours!! The secret ingredients in this are finely chopped salami and sun dried tomato. Taking the time to mince the salami really makes a difference because then it’s all throughout the cheese log – nobody wants to be that person who takes a giant scoop of dip only to find it’s completely devoid of salami! As for the sun dried tomato – well, I contemplated putting it in the cheese log, but I simply couldn’t resist how great it looks when piled on top. Add a few sprigs of rosemary, and it just looks so fabulously festive – it’s a perfect Christmas appetiser for sharing!! 🎄🎄🎄

WHY YOU NEED THIS IN YOUR LIFE!

It would be so easy to ramble on and on about how great this Italian Cheese Log is, but you don’t need that. So let me just get right down to why you’ll love this!! ✅ Looks fabulous – a great Christmas appetiser made for sharing! ✅ Tastes incredible – packed with flavour! ✅ Easy ✅ Make ahead – keeps for up to a week* ✅ Makes loads ✅ But can also be scaled down ✅ Economical alternative to expensive cheese platters ✅ Adaptable and versatile! Skip the salami to make it meatless, change up the add ins!

Subject to shelf life of salami

AN ANTIPASTO PLATTER – IN CHEESE LOG FORM!

I just love the colours in this. Even making it brings on the holiday cheer – look at all those colours! ↑↑↑ We’ve got salami, olives, chargrilled peppers (I like to use the jar with mixed colours – yellow and red – just for extra colour), cheese, and a nice hit of freshness from minced green onion. Add a good dose of Italian seasonings – I like to make my own simple mix here but you can absolutely substitute with an Italian seasoning mix – then simply mix it all together, scrap into a loaf pan or freeform it into the shape of a log and refrigerate. The refrigeration time is to firm it up so it can be turned out onto a platter and also to give it time for the flavours to meld. It’s terrific made on the day, but it’s even better the next day… and the next… and the next!

QUICK FESTIVE LOOK

Decorating it is my favourite part – the beauty of it being that it’s so easy!! I literally just dump an entire jar of sun dried tomatoes over the top – oil and all. The oil is infused with flavour and it’s part of the overall eating experience. So with every bite, you have crisp salty crackers, the soft flavour packed Cheese Log, some extra pops of flavour from sun dried tomato AND juiciness from the sun dried tomato oil. Ahhhh, it’s the perfect bite!!! 😇

If your people are more civilised than mine, then consider serving this Italian Cheese Log with small cheese knifes to spread onto crackers. But if your people are like mine, you’ll skip the cutlery and just let everyone dive in with their hands, grabbing crackers and dunking it straight into the cheese log. Yep, it’ll get messy. All that effort you go to, prettying it up and they are going to annihilate it. And that’s totally ok. That’s what sharing food is all about, right?? Especially during the festive season! 😂 – Nagi x