Alice says: “For this pseudo-fondue you’re looking for a brie or camembert-style cheese, but there’s no need to splash out – warming any cheese, even if it’s on the econo-end, will make it taste way better and bougier than if you serve it at room temp with creaky crackers. Because the heat mellows out flavour, and older cheese is more intense, this is a great way of using up a cheese that’s approaching its use-by date; in the shops, these are often discounted for sale – winner! As for the bread, a day-old loaf works best, but if yours is fresh and fluffy, you can dry it out a little first in the oven – 150°C (300°F) for 20 minutes should do it. Day-old breads hold their shape and give you better crunch, so you’ll notice that I use stale stuff in recipes quite voraciously. From French toast to cheese toasties to this here cheeseplosion, old bread’s still got plenty of love to give.”

Serves 6-8 as a snack

Ingredients

1 x 200g bloomy rind soft cheese, such as a camembert-style, nearing its use-by date
1 good-quality cob loaf (a day old, and preferably sourdough)
4 garlic cloves, 3 finely chopped, 1 thinly sliced
½ bunch of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
⅓ cup (80 ml) olive oil or melted butter (no need to be too precise)
10 thyme sprigs
¼ cup (60ml) decent white wine

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a baking tray with baking paper.

If the cheese comes in a box, flip it over and use it as a stencil to cut the same shape into the middle of the cob with a small serrated knife (or cut a round by eye roughly the same size and shape as the cheese). Cut the cob loaf in a crisscross fashion around this central round to form bread soldiers, making sure not to cut all the way through to the bottom. Tear out the central round and reserve these bits of bread.

In a bowl, mix the chopped garlic, parsley and half the olive oil together into a paste. Spoon a little of the mixture between the cracks of the cob soldiers. Pour the remaining olive oil into the dregs of the paste and toss the reserved bits of bread in it.

Place the cheese in the hole and poke in half the thyme sprigs and the remaining garlic slices. Pour the wine over the cheese. Pop the cob loaf on the baking tray, surrounded by the oiled-up bits of bread. Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove the cob from the baking tray and place on a wooden board to serve.

Sprinkle the remaining thyme leaves and some cracked black pepper on top. Enjoy with good company and a glass of that wine by ripping the bread soldiers off and dipping into the molten cheese fondue.

Bonus bits

Recipe riffs

Some CP butter (see below) would really make the Cheese-Pop. Just sub it in for the garlic paste. Oooft!

You can get pretty creative with the flavouring. Put some Vegemite, Marmite or similar in there to turn it into a cheesy-mite situation, or for a totally different aromatic experience, use tarragon or oregano instead of parsley.

To take this more towards Italy, swap the thyme out for rosemary. Use a square of taleggio instead of brie or camembert, and cut a square into the cob loaf, rather than a circle. Drizzle with a little honey to serve.

Extra extras

Know what goes great with soft cheese and bread? Truffle! If it’s truffle season, use a fine microplane to shave some in a cloud over the hot cheese as soon as it comes out of the oven, to elicit max OOOOOHS from all involved. But whatever you do, say nay to truffle oil. That stuff is no good. End of.

Waste knot

You don’t need to keep buying hard herbs like thyme and rosemary fresh every time you need to use them, especially if they’re going to get roasted or braised in a dish. Pop what you don’t need in the freezer and they’ll last for ages.

Just remember to check the freezer when making your shopping list for dishes such as this one.

Ingredient spotlight: Melty cheese

Melty cheese is one of life’s greatest joys, and one that can increasingly be enjoyed by both plant-based eaters and omnivores alike.

For plant-based melty cheeses, look for ‘mozzarella-style’ or similar; the label will usually tell you what kind of behaviour you can expect with some heat.

For dairy-based cheeses, it’s just a matter of working out which cheeses love a blast and which prefer things at room temperature. Check the label or ask the person behind the counter.

If you want your cheese to keep it together, choose one with a high melting point, such as queso blanco, halloumi or saganaki, which are designed to crisp on the outside but maintain composure on the inside.

Other cheeses thrive on pooling into perfect puddles when the mercury rises. Those with lower melting points are ones like provolone, taleggio, mozzarella, gruyère-style cheeses and most cheddars. These are great pizza and toastie cheeses.

You’ll often find combinations in cheese pies and classic fondue recipes, as some of the cheese is for stretchiness, and some for sharpness, where you want that balance of both.

Feta is a bit of an in-betweener — it holds together until you give it a poke, and then it may as well be cheese sauce.

Blue cheese is a funny one. It can melt, but due to the uneven distribution of mould pockets, the brilliant balance of blue is best kept at room temperature, or you’ll have pools of oil in some parts and sharp bitterness in others.

As for brie, camembert and other soft-rind cheeses, these give you the best of both worlds – a bit like fruit. When they’re ripe and at their best, room temperature is the best way to serve them, but if things are a bit funky or underdone, heat does wonders for infusing new flavours and bringing out caramel notes. After all, everything tastes better with melty cheese on top… even cheese.

CP butter

200g butter, softened
1 cup (100g) grated parmesan or pecorino
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon salt flakes
¼ cup chopped parsley

Put the butter in a bowl. Using a mortar and pestle, grind the parmesan, garlic, pepper and salt together into a rough paste, like you’re making pesto. Mix the paste through the butter, folding the parsley through at the end.

From The Joy Of Better Cooking: Life-Changing Skills & Thrills For Enthusiastic Eaters by Alice Zaslavsky (£25, Murdoch Books), out now

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