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 Nagi, New website looks great. Today’s recipe as usual looks delicious. I love your recipes and if I am feeling uninspired about what to cook, I always go to your site for inspiration – and am never disappointed. I frequently recommend you to others. Merry Christmas and happy New Year to you.
Love the new website, Nagi! The bold headings, new fonts and bullet points make it easier to read. I love that Dozer has his own section and button! 😅 The new drop down menus make navigation including to Food Bloggers Central much easier. I also like the dietary categories and so I can search for gluten free recipes easily. I’m also pleased to see that my email address pops up now when I click in that section. A couple of glitches I noticed: 1. When I clicked on “nitty gritty” nothing happened. 2. When I ticked the “Only Quick & Easy” option (which is clever” there might have pages 1, 2 and 3 pages listed in orange below but there was actually only the 1 page to view. This happened in the Australia Day and another section. Good luck with sorting these minor things in a much easier to read website. Congratulations to all involved. ☺️
New website looking great!
OMGEEEE! Love love love the new website! Stunning photos…easy to understand and such thorough instructions and recipes! Definitely a winner!!! : )
I love the visuals on the new website, the images of the glorious food catches the eye!
Yum…
Love the new website!
Yum….
Love the new website!
I think yoir new website looks fabulous. I didn’t notice any glitches. I really like your new picture for your bio. Congrats on the early christmas present of a beautiful website!
New website is great all recipes at your finger tip. I will definitely cook the Italian cheese log for Christmas. Keep the recipes coming you doing a great job.
Love the new website 🙂 Just in time for xmas! The categories are easy to navigate, loving the larger font easier to see recipes when cooking (lol) and also this cheese log looks pretty impressive!!! PS. I’ll be living in the “one pot” section, fyi.
The website update is great, Nagi! The categories are definitely a lot easier to navigate through now. Not to mention the design is fantastic. X
Hi Nagi, Love the “new look”. and now we have a “Dozer” album, love that little (well big) guy. This is another that will be on our table this Festive Season. Hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas and a Fantastic New year and I look forward to more of you both next year. X X X.
Love the new website 🙂
I love the Quick and Easy Button!!!!
Omg N, so many yummy recipes all at once! I just saw those kind of homemade gourmet crackers a few days ago on another site, but their’s were store bought. Now I’m so excited that I can make my own crackers! Oh, the possibilities and with that yummy Italian cheese log! I’m talking about the dried cranberries and seeds one…in case your frowning. 😂
I love your new website even more now N, but seeing all this yummy food to make all at once, it’s making my tummy growl!
I’m also loving the Christmas pic of Dozer! What did u do, tire him out with taking too many pics of him? 😂
Wow, he has his own section now! I see u have new pics of yourself too…like. You are photogenic, I’m not!
Have a great weekend coming up with Dozer! J x
The 5 stars didn’t work for me N, just to let you know.
Great recipe to have in my file. So far, so good on the site design. Easy, but didn’t find your retired mama’s recipes! I’ll keep looking.
Love the new layout on the website! Much easier to read and navigate.
Have tried many recipe sites in the past, but not one compares with the quality of yours. Old great, new really fantastic. Many thanks. Evelyn
Congratulations Nagi on your new, clear and simple format. It is full of Sydney sunshine and warmth and supereasy to navigate. And love the cheese loaf with its salami, peppers and olives and all the palate-tingling spices: recipe already in the kitchen for next week ! Just – do you have to be such a perfectionist in your photography and have your models go to sleep on you . . . 🙂 ?
recipe looks delicious. Loving the new website design, super fresh looking and so easy to navigate.