This time of year, while people are placing orders for roses and chocolates, I’m thinking about cheese.
Case in point: when I visited the new Scardello outpost at the Dallas Farmers Market building last week, my questions were all about cheese, with a vision for Valentine’s Day. Did they have Neufchatel, that wonderful heart-shaped cheese from Normandie that’s creamy and mild and so perfectly shaped for the occasion? No Neufchatel – it’s notoriously hard to track down, and the focus at Scardello’s Farmers Market location is on American cheeses, and even more specifically Texas cheeses, of which they have an ample selection—but Rich was suggesting a triple-crème, the other intuitive buy.
Triple-crème refers to cheeses that are 75 percent butterfat – that’s more than a double-crème Brie at 60 percent. Think of Brie, but richer, more luxurious, more silky-satiny. That luxuriousness makes them good for Valentine’s Day. They’re rich and decadent. They’re excellent with bubbles. Done.
Two classics are Brillat-Savarin and Delice de Bourgogne, often barely contained in its case. But when I think of a cheesy Valentine, I’m happy with any number of cheeses. A lovely goat’s milk Gouda. A funky blue. Funky, pungent, wash-rinded … be still my heart.
If you’re looking for something for this weekend, you can’t go wrong with a cheese from California’s Cowgirl Creamery, lovely little pucks like their Mt. Tam. Stay local with the Argento, a soft-ripened goat cheese from Latte Da in Flower Mound. Or order a cheese board and re-enact a Lady and the Tramp moment over an oozing burrata (second only, maybe, to a fondue).
My original point remains: in my opinion, nothing says “I love you” more than cheese, though I know the devotees in that camp are few.
