
Whipped Feta
with Sweet and Hot Peppers
Makes 2 CupsIngredients
* | 2 cups sheep's milk French feta, drained and broken into rough 1/2 pieces or crumbled |
* | 2 red bell peppers, roasted, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped |
* | 2 teaspoons Aleppo chilies + a pinch for garnish |
* | 1 teaspoon Urfa chilies + a pinch for garnish |
* | 1/2 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika + a pinch for garnish |
* | 1 teaspoon lemon juice |
* | 1/4 cup olive oil |
Instructions
1 | Place all of the ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and combine them so that the sweet and hot peppers coat the cheese. |
2 | In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, puree the mixture for about 2 minutes, until very smooth and creamy. |
3 | Place the mixture in a crock and sprinkle it with a pinch of all three of the chilies to garnish and show them off. |


Notes
At Oleana, we serve this addictive staple as a bread condiment, under the "pret a manger" section of our menu. We dish it up in a little crock and sprinkle it with a pinch each of Aleppo and Urfa chilies and paprika to really show the peppers off.This untraditional recipe is my interpretation of a typical hot pepper and feta spread eaten as a mezze in Greece. It's important to use a good creamy feta - such as a sheep's milk French feta - so that it will whip up very smoothly. For salads and more crumbly applications, Greek-style or cow's milk feta is fine.Serve this dish with Meniche or Manaaeesh Dough (Flatbread with Za'atar) or with celery sticks, raw fennel sticks or spears of endive as a salad course or snack. Source
Chef/Owner Ana Sortun, Oleana Restaurant, Cambridge, MA from her book Spice Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean, Reagan Books/Harper Collins, 2006