Kick off the holidays with this festive Christmas Appetiser – an Italian Cheese Log! It’s like an antipasto platter in dip form packed with minced salami, olives, peppers, green onions, a hefty dose of Italian seasonings, AND topped with sun dried tomato.
Terrific easy, make-ahead economical alternative to expensive cheese platters – and bursting with the holiday cheer!!!
A FESTIVE CHRISTMAS APPETIZER IDEA!
Bringing on some Christmas cheer with this festive Italian Cheese Log!!
It’s a far cry from your usual cheeseball with a handful of token flavourings. This one is jam packed with flavour…. loaded with Italian flavours!!
The secret ingredients in this are finely chopped salami and sun dried tomato. Taking the time to mince the salami really makes a difference because then it’s all throughout the cheese log – nobody wants to be that person who takes a giant scoop of dip only to find it’s completely devoid of salami!
As for the sun dried tomato – well, I contemplated putting it in the cheese log, but I simply couldn’t resist how great it looks when piled on top. Add a few sprigs of rosemary, and it just looks so fabulously festive – it’s a perfect Christmas appetiser for sharing!! 🎄🎄🎄
WHY YOU NEED THIS IN YOUR LIFE!
It would be so easy to ramble on and on about how great this Italian Cheese Log is, but you don’t need that. So let me just get right down to why you’ll love this!!
✅ Looks fabulous – a great Christmas appetiser made for sharing!
✅ Tastes incredible – packed with flavour!
✅ Easy
✅ Make ahead – keeps for up to a week*
✅ Makes loads
✅ But can also be scaled down
✅ Economical alternative to expensive cheese platters
✅ Adaptable and versatile! Skip the salami to make it meatless, change up the add ins!
* Subject to shelf life of salami
AN ANTIPASTO PLATTER – IN CHEESE LOG FORM!
I just love the colours in this. Even making it brings on the holiday cheer – look at all those colours! ↑↑↑
We’ve got salami, olives, chargrilled peppers (I like to use the jar with mixed colours – yellow and red – just for extra colour), cheese, and a nice hit of freshness from minced green onion.
Add a good dose of Italian seasonings – I like to make my own simple mix here but you can absolutely substitute with an Italian seasoning mix – then simply mix it all together, scrap into a loaf pan or freeform it into the shape of a log and refrigerate.
The refrigeration time is to firm it up so it can be turned out onto a platter and also to give it time for the flavours to meld. It’s terrific made on the day, but it’s even better the next day… and the next… and the next!
QUICK FESTIVE LOOK
Decorating it is my favourite part – the beauty of it being that it’s so easy!! I literally just dump an entire jar of sun dried tomatoes over the top – oil and all.
The oil is infused with flavour and it’s part of the overall eating experience. So with every bite, you have crisp salty crackers, the soft flavour packed Cheese Log, some extra pops of flavour from sun dried tomato AND juiciness from the sun dried tomato oil.
Ahhhh, it’s the perfect bite!!! 😇
If your people are more civilised than mine, then consider serving this Italian Cheese Log with small cheese knifes to spread onto crackers.
But if your people are like mine, you’ll skip the cutlery and just let everyone dive in with their hands, grabbing crackers and dunking it straight into the cheese log.
Yep, it’ll get messy. All that effort you go to, prettying it up and they are going to annihilate it.
And that’s totally ok. That’s what sharing food is all about, right?? Especially during the festive season! 😂 – Nagi x
MORE CHRISTMAS APPETISER IDEAS!
CHRISTMAS APPETISER – ITALIAN CHEESE LOG!
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
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Christmas Appetiser: Italian Cheese Loaf
Ingredients
Cheese Log:
- 500g/ 1 lb cream cheese , softened (Note 1)
- 1/3 cup sour cream (Note 2)
- 1/2 tsp EACH thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary, black pepper OR 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
- 1 tsp EACH garlic powder, salt, red pepper/chilli flakes (adjust to taste)
- 2 cup cheddar or other cheese , freshly grated (Note 3)
- 280g / 9 oz roasted peppers , drained and finely chopped
- 180g / 6 oz salami , finely chopped (Note 4)
- 3/4 cup green olives , finely chopped
- 1/3 cup green onion , finely minced (3 – 4 stalks)
Topping/serving:
- 220g / 7 oz sun dried tomato strips with OIL , roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup parsley , finely chopped (or chives)
- Rosemary sprigs (decoration)
- Jatz or other crackers , for serving
Instructions
- Spray a loaf pan with oil then line with cling wrap with overhang.
- Mix Cheese Log ingredients together. Taste and adjust salt if needed (bear in mind saltiness of crackers you are serving with).
- Scrape into loaf pan and level surface, pressing to remove air pockets. Smaller pan = taller loaf.
- Cover with cling wrap overhang and refrigerate for 4 hours+ (up to 1 week).
- Turn out onto platter, peel off cling wrap.
- Top with sun dried tomato and pour over oil. Garnish with parsley and rosemary sprigs to give it a festive look.
- Best to serve closer to room temp than fridge cold. Serve with crackers! Knives for smearing optional – it’s soft enough to scoop with crackers.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
Cute Christmassy photos of Dozer is all part of the Christmas tradition. Except…… he fell asleep mid photo shoot! 😂
Nagi, what a wonderful redesigned website. I love the brilliant colors and layout on the home page. The categories and collections are great. I especially appreciate that the search for recipes has significantly improved. Great job to you and your team.
Love the new website, and so glad Dozer is still as awesome as ever. Fabulous recipes as always
Beautiful food as always. The new website is great to read; more concise. Dozer as always looks festive!
I like the new website. It would be glorious if you could search within the category since it is all listed by dates….although cruising by everything is pretty inspirational. So never mind!
I love the new color choice, The navy with coral, that’s actually Pantone’s 2019 color!! But anyway, it is much easier to navigate and nice to see the pics along with the name of the recipe when scrolling. Thank you, Nagi, for making it even more fun for us new cooks.
Love the revamped website and especially love todays recipe. Going out to buy the ingredients today!
Love the recipe. Totally making it for Christmas Day. I love the new website. Looks great. Thanks for all the amazing recipes. Love what you do.
great looking recipe Must try. Your web sight is great!
Love the new website Nagi! So many tips and tricks within your recipes, you help me feel confident that I can try new things and succeed!
Ooh looks good and I love the new website!!!! The knife looks good too 🤗
Looks beautiful and delicious! Your recipies are always winners!! I like the color scheme of the new site. Thank you for sharing your gift!
I love the new website and I’m definitely making the Italian cheese log for Christmas can tell me what type of salami you use our delicatessen has different types
The cheese log looks so pretty with the color of the sun dried tomatoes on top. The new site seems easier to navigate and I particularly love the drop down box for the different recipe types!
I can’t wait to make this Christmas Italian Cheese Loaf! I am on my way to the grocery store to get items I don’t already have. Making this today!!!!
Morning! Or should I say good evening! Just woke up to find a new recipe in my inbox which I always look forward to. Just want to say Thank You and love the new website design. Sincerely, Tracy Medina from U.S.
Make-ahead? Economical? Sounds good to me!! Definitely trying this for Christmas. I have goat cheese that I need to use up. Do you think I can sub that in for the cream cheese? The new website looks great! I’m looking forward to more of your wonderful recipes. Thanks!
👍🏼☺️ Love ur recipes
thanks nagi for the seasonal recipe .
Your new site is very sleek-but the recipes are so beautifully set up and photos are so well displayed.
Your new website design is wonderful. I absolutely love it, and your recipes look good enough to eat right from my computer! Congrats on a job well done. Sue