Kick off the holidays with this festive Christmas Appetiser – an Italian Cheese Log! It’s like an antipasto platter in dip form packed with minced salami, olives, peppers, green onions, a hefty dose of Italian seasonings, AND topped with sun dried tomato.
Terrific easy, make-ahead economical alternative to expensive cheese platters – and bursting with the holiday cheer!!!
A FESTIVE CHRISTMAS APPETIZER IDEA!
Bringing on some Christmas cheer with this festive Italian Cheese Log!!
It’s a far cry from your usual cheeseball with a handful of token flavourings. This one is jam packed with flavour…. loaded with Italian flavours!!
The secret ingredients in this are finely chopped salami and sun dried tomato. Taking the time to mince the salami really makes a difference because then it’s all throughout the cheese log – nobody wants to be that person who takes a giant scoop of dip only to find it’s completely devoid of salami!
As for the sun dried tomato – well, I contemplated putting it in the cheese log, but I simply couldn’t resist how great it looks when piled on top. Add a few sprigs of rosemary, and it just looks so fabulously festive – it’s a perfect Christmas appetiser for sharing!! 🎄🎄🎄
WHY YOU NEED THIS IN YOUR LIFE!
It would be so easy to ramble on and on about how great this Italian Cheese Log is, but you don’t need that. So let me just get right down to why you’ll love this!!
✅ Looks fabulous – a great Christmas appetiser made for sharing!
✅ Tastes incredible – packed with flavour!
✅ Easy
✅ Make ahead – keeps for up to a week*
✅ Makes loads
✅ But can also be scaled down
✅ Economical alternative to expensive cheese platters
✅ Adaptable and versatile! Skip the salami to make it meatless, change up the add ins!
* Subject to shelf life of salami
AN ANTIPASTO PLATTER – IN CHEESE LOG FORM!
I just love the colours in this. Even making it brings on the holiday cheer – look at all those colours! ↑↑↑
We’ve got salami, olives, chargrilled peppers (I like to use the jar with mixed colours – yellow and red – just for extra colour), cheese, and a nice hit of freshness from minced green onion.
Add a good dose of Italian seasonings – I like to make my own simple mix here but you can absolutely substitute with an Italian seasoning mix – then simply mix it all together, scrap into a loaf pan or freeform it into the shape of a log and refrigerate.
The refrigeration time is to firm it up so it can be turned out onto a platter and also to give it time for the flavours to meld. It’s terrific made on the day, but it’s even better the next day… and the next… and the next!
QUICK FESTIVE LOOK
Decorating it is my favourite part – the beauty of it being that it’s so easy!! I literally just dump an entire jar of sun dried tomatoes over the top – oil and all.
The oil is infused with flavour and it’s part of the overall eating experience. So with every bite, you have crisp salty crackers, the soft flavour packed Cheese Log, some extra pops of flavour from sun dried tomato AND juiciness from the sun dried tomato oil.
Ahhhh, it’s the perfect bite!!! 😇
If your people are more civilised than mine, then consider serving this Italian Cheese Log with small cheese knifes to spread onto crackers.
But if your people are like mine, you’ll skip the cutlery and just let everyone dive in with their hands, grabbing crackers and dunking it straight into the cheese log.
Yep, it’ll get messy. All that effort you go to, prettying it up and they are going to annihilate it.
And that’s totally ok. That’s what sharing food is all about, right?? Especially during the festive season! 😂 – Nagi x
MORE CHRISTMAS APPETISER IDEAS!
CHRISTMAS APPETISER – ITALIAN CHEESE LOG!
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
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Christmas Appetiser: Italian Cheese Loaf
Ingredients
Cheese Log:
- 500g/ 1 lb cream cheese , softened (Note 1)
- 1/3 cup sour cream (Note 2)
- 1/2 tsp EACH thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary, black pepper OR 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
- 1 tsp EACH garlic powder, salt, red pepper/chilli flakes (adjust to taste)
- 2 cup cheddar or other cheese , freshly grated (Note 3)
- 280g / 9 oz roasted peppers , drained and finely chopped
- 180g / 6 oz salami , finely chopped (Note 4)
- 3/4 cup green olives , finely chopped
- 1/3 cup green onion , finely minced (3 – 4 stalks)
Topping/serving:
- 220g / 7 oz sun dried tomato strips with OIL , roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup parsley , finely chopped (or chives)
- Rosemary sprigs (decoration)
- Jatz or other crackers , for serving
Instructions
- Spray a loaf pan with oil then line with cling wrap with overhang.
- Mix Cheese Log ingredients together. Taste and adjust salt if needed (bear in mind saltiness of crackers you are serving with).
- Scrape into loaf pan and level surface, pressing to remove air pockets. Smaller pan = taller loaf.
- Cover with cling wrap overhang and refrigerate for 4 hours+ (up to 1 week).
- Turn out onto platter, peel off cling wrap.
- Top with sun dried tomato and pour over oil. Garnish with parsley and rosemary sprigs to give it a festive look.
- Best to serve closer to room temp than fridge cold. Serve with crackers! Knives for smearing optional – it’s soft enough to scoop with crackers.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
Cute Christmassy photos of Dozer is all part of the Christmas tradition. Except…… he fell asleep mid photo shoot! 😂
😊 Hi I live alone and will be going to my daughter’s for Christmas lunch so this would be too much for us but I love the idea so I will be saving recipe for modified quantity later in New Year!
Lovely looking new website! And am definitely going to try the cheese log!
I love the new website! It looks clean and searching is easier.
I also love you collections. I’m going to pick a winter warmer for this weekend.
Greetings from The Netherlands!
Well, one beautiful hand crafted hand made knife sits in its box in the drawer. Alone..
So very very alone.. And lonely..
It needs a soul mate, to chop all that salami in a breeze.
It will take some time getting used to navigate your new website. And I think I liked colour theme before. Current salmony pink must have had a very good reason to be chosen for your logo, Nagi?
I love your recipes, always go to your website first, knowing what want to cook will be there. Also, your mothers recipe are amazing. I never cease wanting experiment, even at almost 80 years young!
I love the new website! The best: your photo! You look so happy, it’s contagious!
Dozer looks so cute too!!!
I’ll add this recipe to my Christmas menu and will let you know latter how it turned out (coming from you, perfect for sure).
Merry Christmas, Nagi
Hi Nagi!! Congratulations on your new site – it is very slick and sheek! Thanks for the recipe… it’ll be making an appearance at our next staff morning tea!! At home my family is loving your avocado and chickpea dip… my daughter makes it and she’s in grade 5!
Merry Christmas to you and yours… Diana
I love this website but I also love this cheese log. Not to mention how beautiful the cheese log is and so festive looking. MY family is nuts over Italian so that’s a real plus too. As usual Nagi, your the greatest.
Nagi! The new website is so much better, your photos look even more amazing and recipes are easily printable. I’m doing your Maple Glazed ham again and it mentions the scale up in the notes, but I can’t find the scale up tool. Thank you for making my cooking better xx
The new design makes it easier to look for recipes, I really like the new layout. Yours is my favorite recipe website!!!
Nagi, I love your new website.
The search box works for me, yay! (For some reason the one on the old site never went anywhere for me??) I even found your recipe for Turkey Gravy to use for Christmas.
So, big ticks from me, thank you 🙂
This looks great. I will serve it to my friends on New Year’s Eve. Looks yummy.
I like your website and i often use your recipe. They are all very tastfull.
Looking forward to trawling through the new website for dinner ideas!
I love the revamped website! I especially love following Dozer! I lost my golden a year ago and miss her! They are the best dogs!!
Love the new layout.Can’t wait to make this log next week for Christmas.Merry Christmas.
Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before, looks and sounds amazing, making this for the silly season.
I will be making this for a party this weekend. I will leave a rating on Sunday evening. I would love to win the chef knife. And fyi I have used many of your recipes. You are great. Thanks
I didn’t really need a bribe to visit your site, your recipes, your mother’s recipes and Dozer are incentive enough.
PS. great website
Cheers
A hit to my two teenage daughters!
Love the new layout- it looks really slick! 🙂 I like how the ads aren’t in the way and the website is easy to navigate. Great job! The Italian Cheese Log looks amazing by the way!