Served with toasted garlic bread, this easy baked goat cheese appetizer with tomatoes is a spoonable warm and cozy dip that’s perfect for sharing.
There’s just something so irresistible about a warm goat cheese appetizer. Add tomatoes to that and serve it with crusty bread and you have everything you need for a shareable bite to eat.
I have such a soft spot for baked cheese. And I’m not talking about the kinds that are gooey, melty and best for topping a pizza. No.
Certain cheeses more or less hold their shape even when you heat them, and it’s when you dig in that you discover they’ve become velvety on the inside.
If you’ve only used goat cheese in salads or for finishing other dishes, then it’s likely you just took it out of the package, crumbled it, if it didn’t already come that way, and that was it.
Things are different when you heat goat cheese. Above everything else, don’t expect it to melt. Since it’s a fresh cheese like feta and ricotta, it has a higher moisture content than firm cheeses such as cheddar, which are meant for melting.
Once the goat cheese is warm, it becomes kind of delicate. Even though it may look the same as it did before it went into the oven other than being golden in spots, it becomes very soft and smooth. It manages to be rich and tangy without turning into an overwhelmingly heavy appetizer.
This is what you need for the recipe:
A spoon is the best way to serve the dip. What you will find when you start scooping around is that the cheese will fall apart in the tomatoes. It is so wonderful to have that mix of everything together.
You can make the tomatoes a couple days in advance. Just store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Then it is simple to assemble and bake the dip while your guests are already at your house.
Of course you can rewarm it in the oven and serve it as dip again. But also repurpose the tomatoes and cheese as pasta sauce!
Feta pasta was all the rage on TikTok a while ago. And you can think of this as the goat cheese version. All you have to do is stir the rewarmed tomatoes and goat cheese into hot pasta.
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No. Since it is a fresh cheese and has more moisture, it does not melt. When you warm it, goat cheese will mostly keep its shape and turn soft and smooth on the inside.
Nestled snugly in a dish with chunky tomato sauce, the sliced goat cheese bakes for 20-25 minutes. This gives the cheese time to become golden.
The only way to really brown the cheese is to give it 1-2 minutes under the broiler. Just watch it carefully, so the cheese does not burn because a broiler on high is hot!
Served with toasted garlic bread, this easy baked goat cheese appetizer with tomatoes is a spoonable warm and cozy dip that’s perfect for sharing.
The tomatoes can be made up to 2 days in advance. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Leftovers can be rewarmed in the oven at 350 degrees F and served with bread or crackers. You can also stir them into hot pasta for a sauce.
Keywords: goat cheese appetizer, baked goat cheese
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