Eating cheese for dinner is something I don’t do often enough. It makes for a versatile meal — cheese pairings are seemingly infinite — and is equally satisfying whether you serve standard grocery store cheddar with grapes and crackers or muster enough energy to make an elaborate multi-cheese platter, complete with dips and spreads.
This week’s recipe is somewhere in between. Cut into thick slabs, pan-fried in olive oil and eaten with a fork and a knife, halloumi makes cheese-for-dinner feel even more like a complete meal. I pair it with thin slivers of butternut squash, which I cook under the broiler while frying the cheese. (To make it quick to prep the squash, buy a specimen with a long neck. Use the neck for this recipe, and don’t even bother peeling it. Save the seed-filled bottom for another use.)
To further develop flavor in the dish, I quickly fry walnuts in olive oil before using that same oil to fry the cheese. You’ll get nuttiness in every bite. For an herbaceous fall punch, I scatter the finished dish with chopped fresh sage. The zest and juice of a large lemon bring a final note of freshness and acidity.
The final dish looks dinner-party worthy — indeed, you could serve it as part of a Thanksgiving spread— but is comforting enough to satisfy that cheese-for-dinner itch.
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