Bring Brightness To Your Party With This Hungarian Pimento Cheese Recipe

The following recipe and excerpt for Körözött (Hungarian Pimento Cheese) are from “Second Generation: Hungarian and Jewish Classics Reimagined for the Modern Table” by Jeremy Salamon. It’s available for purchase on Amazon.

The base of this recipe comes from a Hungarian dish, körözött, a spiced cheese spread traditionally made with quark, kind of a chunkier cottage cheese. I grew up in Florida and spent the summers in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, so my love for Southern cooking is genuine and deep. In the summers, we ate a lot of pimento cheese, and I saw a bridge between these two very traditional Hungarian and American foods. (If that’s not the origin story of my cooking, I don’t know what is.) This dip pulls from both sides, with sweet paprika, caraway seeds, and raw onion mingling with a ton of sharp cheddar cheese. It’s a perfect party dip or even better on toasted bread as a late-night sandwich after everyone leaves.

Körözött (Hungarian Pimento Cheese)

Difficulty:BeginnerPrep time: 5 minutesCook time: minutesTotal time: 5 minutesServings:4 cups servings

Ingredients

• 16 ounces cream cheese (preferably Philadelphia), softened
• 1 cup piquillo peppers, drained and finely chopped
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp caraway seeds, toasted
• 1 tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika
• 8 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded (2 cups)
• 1/2 large yellow onion, finely minced (1/2 cup)

Instructions

1. Combine the cream cheese, chopped peppers, mustard, lemon juice, kosher salt, caraway seeds, and paprika in a food processor and process for about 2 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed, until you have a smooth mixture. Transfer to a large bowl and gently fold in the cheddar and onion until combined.
2. To plate: Scrape the körözött into a large serving bowl and garnish with chives, black pepper, and a pinch of flaky salt. Accompany with chips (Ruffles, if you have them) crackers, or toast.
3. Wine pairing: Try pairing körözött with a fuller-bodied white wine with greener flavors and aged in used oak, like Furmint, Zöldveltelini (Grüner Veltliner), or similar.
   

Keywords:< 20 Minutes, Cheese, Food, Jewish

From the book SECOND GENERATION by Jeremy Salamon. Copyright 2024 by Jeremy Salamon. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

• < 20 Minutes
• Cheese
• Food
• Jewish