Cheeseboards Two Ways!

This post is sponsored by Sartori Cheese. All content and opinions remain my own.

Fall means a few things around here. 1) the holidays are coming, and 2) football is here! Basically, it means we will be hosting parties, and attending dinners throughout the next few months. My go-to appetizer is a cheeseboard. I love doing cheese platters, since you can “dress them up” or keep them super simple, but you can also tailor them to people’s specific tastes. Meat and cheeseboards always pairs perfectly with whatever event and whatever the company is. In short, they’re a fail-safe dish for entertaining.

I am partnering up with Sartori Cheese to show you how their cheeses are perfect for any moment in life; from the tailgate to the wine tasting, from the picnic table to the patio, from the movie nights on the couch to cocktail hour.

I am so excited to share cheeseboards two ways today with a variety of Sartori Cheeses.

First, you need to gather your cheeseboard materials:

• nuts
• cheese with a bite
• smooth cheese
• hard cheese
• jam/honey
• crackers/bread
• sweet fruit/dried fruit
• olives/pickles
• cured meats

If I’m hosting a wine dinner, I use that as a chance to do a “formal” cheeseboard. For this I will use a seeded cracker and a crostini. For fruits, I use blueberries or blackberries and grapes on the vine. I serve with prosciutto and hard salami (if I’m feeling crafty, I love to use a cookie cutter to cut shapes into the salami! It is always an unexpected hit). I add kalamata olives and pickles. For cheeses, I serve with one of Sartori’s Reserve Cheeses, the Merlot BellaVitano^®! This cheese is so rich and creamy, and sweet berry notes, and pairs perfectly with the proscuitto. Serving it after the meal? Add come dark chocolate! The other cheese I use with this board Sartori’s Montamoré^® Cheddar. This creamy cheese has hints of parmesan and spreads amazingly on a crostini bread. Pro tip? Sip with a Chardonnay!

Every fall, we host a few friends over for a casual movie night on the patio. Since guests arrive at dusk, we skip on serving dinner, and instead, set out a food board or cheese tray for people to pick at throughout the movie. As this is a super casual evening, I keep my cheeseboard casual, too! For this, I use a buttery cracker and sliced summer sausage. I serve with Sartori’s Montamoré^® Cheddar and Parmesan cheeses, which I pre-slice to make “grab and go” much easier. For fruit, I add in some fresh-from-the-orchard apples and blueberries!

So there you have it! Whatever the event, whatever the reason for celebration, and where ever you are, Sartori Cheeses will always pair perfectly! So tell me: what is on your cheeseboard?

It’s your lucky day! Sartori is giving away a year’s worth of cheese to TEN people! Head over here to enter! And be on the lookout for Sartori at Rose Parks Circle if you’re heading downtown for ArtPrize – they’ll be on site building cheeseboards October 5-7! You can earn extra entries for the contest if you head down to ArtPrize and take a photo at the Sartori booth, enjoying one of the samples, and then post it to Instagram, tagging Sartori and using the hashtag #pairsperfectly. Good luck!