Nigel Slater's Cheesy Starters
A few recipes that I appear to have transcribed from an appearance by Nigel Slater on BBC2. Sometime.

By Nigel Slater
Pear Salad with Mascarpone and Gorgonzola
starter veg salad cheese

Ingredients
Method
Prepare the sauce:
In (lots of) red wine, boil for ten minutes to reduce, the following:
  • unrefined sugar (quite a bit)
  • rosemary
  • bay leaf
  • red chilli (yes, red chilli!)
  • orange zest
  • lemon juice
  • star anise
  • cinnamon
Peel some pears, halve them, scoop out the cores with a teaspoon. boil the pear halves in the sauce for 40 mins.
Mix room temperature Mascarpone and Gorgonzola roughly (not until they are a smooth paste)
Place cheeses over some rocket or watercress, add a couple of pear halves and some sauce.
Yum!

By Nigel Slater
Baked Camembert
starter veg cheese
Bring the cheese to room temperature before you put it in the oven, otherwise it will take forever to cook. Place the box on a tray or ovenproof dish just in case it leaks. Make sure that the box is a wooden one and that it is stapled together and not glued. The glued ones tend to come undone in the oven.

Serves 1 per camembert

Ingredients
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Take a whole small camembert out of it's little wooden box, unwrap it and put it back in the box. Rub the surface with a little white wine then replace the lid on and place in the oven for 25-30 minutes until the lid turns golden and the cheese is soft and wobbly inside its crust.
Serve with crusty bread, or something to dip into the cheese.

By Nigel Slater
Baked Goats Cheese
starter veg cheese
Goats cheese baked in puff pastry.

Ingredients
Method
Lay out a sheet of puff pastry, brush with beaten egg. Place on a generous slice of goat's cheese and a large dollop of pesto. Fold up the four corners of the sheet and seal the edges. Brush with more beaten egg. Bake at gas 6 for 15-20 mins until golden.