Updated April 22, 2020
When your local egg supplier starts making unique cheeses, you cheat a little.
Shawn and I have been on a very limited-dairy diet for about 7 years now. I know, I know. HOW DO WE NOT LIVE WITHOUT CHEESE?! Well, not only does it have to do with the fact that dairy doesn’t agree with my tummy most of the time, but it’s reallllllly bad for vocal health. Being singers, our voices are top priority. 7 years ago, Shawn lost his singing voice completely when we got home from a big tour. We went to an ear-nose-throat doctor to have him scoped, and the doctor didn’t see anything wrong. No nodules, no swelling, no redness. Shawn was devastated. His voice is tied to his soul, he says, so losing it was like losing himself.
He posted about the situation on Facebook, and the comments started rolling in. The advice was all info we already knew and had been implementing for awhile. Then, the phone rang. It was Jay Buchanan, one of our all-time favorite singer/songwriters, and front man of the band Rival Sons. The first question he asked Shawn was, “Do you eat dairy?” Shawn quipped back, “Not on days we sing,” and Jay let him know that with the amount of touring and difficult singing we do nightly, we cannot eat dairy. Like, at all. We cut it out, with the exception of a little butter (because what is life without butter???), and I cannot emphazise enough what a difference it has made. Not only in our vocal health, but also in my skin complexion.
THAT BEING SAID, WE ARE CHEATING A BIT DURING QUARANTINE.
The local woman we get our eggs, chicken, rabbit, and quail from, Marie, recently began dabbling in cheese-making. IT ROCKS. My mom & dad have been the guinea pigs, which is not a bad job to have. Marie has [successully] tried her hand at Camembert, Chevre, Swiss, Cheddar, Gouda, and now Halloumi.
What is Halloumi, you ask? This is what Wikipedia says:
“Halloumi is a semi-hard, unripened, brined cheese made from a mixture of goat’s and sheep’s milk, and sometimes also cow’s milk. It has a high melting point and so can easily be fried or grilled. This property makes it a popular meat substitute.”
I absolutely could not resist cooking something delicious with it:
Locally made Halloumi cheese & Italian sausage baked in tomatoes, garlic, and onions with capers, chopped bacon, smoked paprika, turmeric, cumin, and red pepper flakes, topped with fresh basil, and served with fresh herby bread out of the bread machine!
Halloumi cheese is fantastic to cook with. It keeps its shape, but gets bubbly and melty and browned easily under a broiler. The combination of the creamy, toasty cheese with the spicy sausage, the umami-rich tomato sauce, and the fresh basil was to die for, especially scooped onto the fresh bread I made in our bread machine. I added Herbs de Provence into the bread dough, which worked so well with this bake. What do Herbs de Provence not go with, though?
PIN IT FOR LATER:
**Thanks to The Cook Report for the delicious flavor bomb of a recipe that I based this on! This dish was ridiculously flavorful, and I will be making it again.
XxoO, Jordyn
Halloumi & Italian Sausage Bake
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil or ghee
- 4 fully cooked Italian sausages cut into 1 inch pieces
- 2 pieces of cooked bacon chopped
- 1 sweet onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 1/2 of a 28 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes chopped
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 tbsp capers
- 1 tbsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp. red chili flakes optional
- salt and pepper
- 3 oz Halloumi cheese cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- fresh basil chopped, for garnish
Instructions
- Heat oil or ghee in a 12" cast iron skillet over medium heat.
- Add the onion and sauté until translucent, about 3 minutes.
- Add the garlic and sauté for another minute.
- Stir in the tomatoes and bacon. Follow with the tomato puree, the capers and the spices. Season with salt & pepper. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes to allow the flavors to meld.
- Heat broiler to 400 degrees.
- Remove skillet from heat and distribute Halloumi and Italian sausage evenly across the tomato mixture, gently nudging them down into the sauce.
- Place skillet under the broiler for a few minutes until cheese has browned. Finish with generous amount of fresh basil before serving. Serve with fresh bread, over pasta or over rice.
2 Comments
swetgras
April 22, 2020 at 1:41 PMpart of my incentive for cooking is the glass of wine that goes with it. The other is the beauty of a dish..and this one is lovely. Did you bake the whole thing? fresh tomatoes or canned and drained? I will also go back to the original recipe and study a bit. this looks lovely in that same cast iron fry pan you used …which I use often.
thehungrysongbird
May 26, 2020 at 2:38 AMHa! Yes, I love cooking with wine, too. 🙂 Yes, the whole thing was broiled. I love a dish you can start in one pan and finish in the oven! I used canned whole tomatoes. I did not have zucchini or the amount of Halloumi cheese it called for, so I added a few things for extra flavor: Italian sausage, capers, and chopped bacon. It really was as delicious as it looks!