Appetizer Date Night Food and Drink Lifestyle

Date Night In: A Romantic Cheese and Charcuterie Board

Last modified on February 8th, 2018 at 2:08 pm

When celebrating date night at home, we like to keep it simple yet equally special with meals that don’t take long to prep but are impactful enough to celebrate our relationship. Enter our Romantic Cheese and Charcuterie Board.

Disclaimer: This Romantic Cheese and Charcuterie Board is sponsored by Castello Cheese. All opinions are our own.

Philip and I are always looking for fun and fresh date nights that allow us to spend time with one another and reconnect after a busy week. While we love going out, our preferred date night of choice is spent in the comfort of our own home, starting in the kitchen, and ending on the couch with a glass of wine and a movie.

But, depending on the week, we like to keep it simple yet equally special at home with meals that don’t take long to prep but are impactful enough to celebrate our relationship. Enter our Romantic Cheese and Charcuterie Board. There’s something special about feasting with our fingers, sharing a single plate and creating personalized combinations of meats, cheeses and accoutrements.

You’re probably thinking a Cheese and Charcuterie Board is as simple as it gets, and yes, it is a classic mathematical equation of cheese x meat + crackers (with a few grapes for colour). But our Romantic Cheese and Charcuterie Board boasts quality cheeses by Castello and a few unconventional, but still perfect pairings that spread the love with flavours we just really adore.

The Cheese

When curating a board the most important thing is the variety of cheeses, textures and flavours that anchor your platter. For our Romantic Cheese and Charcuterie Board we opted for the classic trifecta: Castello’s soft Double Crème White, medium Extra Creamy Danish Blue mould cheese, and rich Cream Cheese with Chives.

Double Crème White: a melt in your mouth cheese with seductive notes beneath a thick and velvety case. Pairing well with pomegranates, we topped this cheese with a cranberry pomegranate coulis.

Extra Creamy Danish Blue: an aromatic cheese flavoured with extra fresh cream to add to it’s richness and texture. This blue mould pairs perfectly with the chocolate, honey and cherry jelly on your board.

Cream Cheese with Chives: a sweet and tangy cheese that pairs well with the spicy meats on the board; we suggest pairing this cheese with a slice of spicy salami topped with a drizzle of honey.

The Meat

Since we chose 3 cheeses we opted for 3 meats to go along with our Romantic Cheese and Charcuterie Board. We included a gentle prosciutto, a spicy chorizo and a hot salami. Incorporating heat on your cheeseboard allows for flavours to build and layer, and the fiery heat adds to the spark between you and your partner.

The Crackers

The vehicle in which the cheese and meat enter your mouth should not be an after thought. The flavour, texture and shape of a cracker is all important to how the rest of your ingredients taste. We chose a simple water cracker, a rosemary fig artisan cracker and toasted baguette for additional texture. With so many cracker options it’s best to choose your favourites, it is after all about you two tonight.

The Crudités

For our fruits and veggies, we chose ingredients that are known to spark romance between lovers. Pepperoncini, pickled asparagus and olives are a must on any cheeseboard, but in lieu of grapes we chose the natural red heart shaped strawberry, the delicate pink and purple sweetness of figs, and pomegranates, adding crunch and colour to our board.

The Good Stuff

Dark chocolate, honey comb, and rich nuts like almond and pistachio add luxury and decadence to your romantic board and pair beautifully with your selection of cheeses (because what’s a cheese and charcuterie board without nibbles and small bites between the cheese and meat?). Bonus: use these ingredients to fill the empty spaces on your board, it’ll help it look more robust and full.

The Spreads

The final addition to your board are the jellies and jams. Skipping traditional store bought spreads, we cooked down cranberries with pomegranates and smeared it over our Double Crème White for a blast of fruit jam with every bite. Also, for added richness on our Romantic Cheese and Charcuterie Board, we pickled cherries and mashed them as a fruit compote pairing perfectly with the Extra Creamy Danish Blue.

The Wine

Whenever Philip and I are grabbing a bottle of wine we always ask, so, where do we want to go tonight? Choosing a bottle of wine by its country of origin makes it more fun and secretly helps you prepare your cheeseboard with fun flavours that complement the wine and the country it’s from. For us, we hit the Vintage section of our local wine store and chose an Italian Chianti pairing perfectly with the cheese and romanticism of our board.

No matter what you put on your Romantic Cheese and Charcuterie board, as long as you prepare it with love, you’ll be sure to have a memorable night in. Remember, if you can’t cook you better know how to charcuterie.

Bon appetit and cheers,

Chef Sous Chef