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Almogrote (Hard Cheese and Pepper Spread)

Name: Almogrote (Hard Cheese and Pepper Spread)
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Spanish
Ingredients: 250 g aged hard goat cheese; 2 dried hot peppers; 2 cloves garlic; 0.5 ripe tomato; 80 ml extra virgin olive oil

A spread from La Gomera in the Canary Islands: a long-aged hard goat cheese grated fine and worked with hot pepper, garlic and olive oil. No heat is used. The cheese is too hard to mash, so it is grated and loosened with oil, and the amount of oil sets how thick the paste is. Spread on toast or potatoes.

Ingredients

6servings

aged hard goat cheese · La Gomera cheese, or a long-aged manchego or pecorino250 g
dried hot peppers · Canarian pimienta palmera, or cayenne2
garlic2 cloves
ripe tomato · optional, peeled and seeded0.5
extra virgin olive oil · add more to taste80 ml

Steps

Stem and seed the dried peppers, soak them in warm water 20 minutes and squeeze them dry.
⏲ 20 min
Cut the rind off the cheese and grate it on the finest grater.
Pound the garlic and soaked peppers in a mortar to a smooth paste. If using tomato, pound it in now.
Add the grated cheese and pound and stir, pouring in the olive oil a little at a time. In a blender, use short pulses.
Stop adding oil when it is soft enough to spread on bread. Add more for a looser paste.
Pack into a jar, cover the top with a thin layer of olive oil and refrigerate. Take it out 30 minutes before eating.

Variations

Without tomato. Cheese, pepper, garlic and oil alone, for a stronger paste.
Looser. More oil makes a sauce to spoon over potatoes or vegetables.
Milder. Use one pepper, or swap it for sweet paprika.

Tips

Use the finest grater. Coarse cheese stays gritty.
Add the oil a little at a time. How much goes in sets the thickness.
No heat at any point.
Let it warm up before spreading. Cold, the oil sets and it is stiff.

More detail and the reasons why (2)

The opposite cheese to obatzda. Obatzda mashes a camembert that ripening has made soft right to the middle, and the butter only binds it. The cheese in almogrote has had most of its water taken by ageing; it is hard and dry and will not break under a fork. So it is grated fine and loosened with oil, and how soft the paste is depends on the oil, not on the cheese. It is the aged cheese aligot avoids, used with no heat at all.
A mojo with cheese in it. In the Canary Islands papas arrugadas come with mojo, a sauce of pepper, garlic and oil. Almogrote is that mojo with aged cheese worked in, thick enough to spread on bread.