Cheese And Fruit

a worthy food tradition

Everyone knows that apples and cheese pair well together. Cheese-and-fruit is a classic combination but I confess I rarely eat my cheese with anything fruity. I was working on a project for someone and she was suggesting good food pairings with wine. For one of them she suggested a cheese with a blueberry compote. I thought this sounded like one of those combinations you might come up with to help the Blueberry Commission sell more blueberries to the fancy crowd.

Even though I thought eating cheese with a blueberry compote was about as appetizing as eating goose fat on a cracker, I prepared a cracker with Dutch Fontina cheese and some of my blueberry lime sauce to take a picture of it. The glossy purple sauce was striking against the pale cheese and photographed well. When I was done with it I couldn't bear to throw out a perfectly good slice of Fontina and decided that I must eat it regardless of the blueberry weirdness.

Apparently my prejudice against eating my cheese with fruit has been denying me a world of pleasure. The sweetness of the sauce (with that delicate hint of lime) set off the nutty creamy Fontina so well I'd almost be willing to believe that they were developed specifically for each other.

My food education is a slow deliberate process. I am selective in what I will try. Because I don't eat meat, there are a ton of things I will happily never put in my mouth that are surely better put in yours. However, it is wonderful when these moments of discovery happen unexpectedly that open a whole new food vocabulary for me.

Now I can't help but wonder what unexpected food peaches can be paired with? Any ideas?