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! 😂
Your new website design is great! Even more fun and readable than the original. I love your recipes and have never tried one I didn’t enjoy. Looking forward to more of your culinary adventures! Thank you.
Loving the new website and the way to browse for recipes!
As alway this recipe looks fabulous!
This has me drooling, and it’s only 6:45 am!
Your photos are wonderful.
Such a beautiful sight (site)! Stunning, mouthwatering visuals and wonderfully approachable recipes. You make us feel like we can all create fabulous eats for any occasion. Thank you! Love to Dozer x
This looks awesome. Will definitely make it to my Christmas appetizer list. Nagi, the new website design looks great. Very easy to navigate and find the recipes I’m looking for. You are my go to blog when looking to try something new. All your recipes are always spot on. Love the notes section in each recipe as well.
I will love to make this recipe, my husband loves salami, this is a great alternative for the ham and cheese tray.
The website looks great but the cheese log looks even better!
Nice design, however one person told me once that the recipes and the SEO are more important than the website design :-). I guess we all need a refreshing design once in a while. Always admire you for all the link juice within your website
Love it! So easy to find everything you need at a glance and a click. Same beautiful photography, handsome Dozer, and delicious recipes. Bravo!
The color scheme looks so good and I love the collections and categories. I would love it if it showed more recipes per page, since there’s a lot of white space as you scroll down, or put bigger pictures and reduce the numbers of columns and increase the number of rows.
Looks great to me!
I love the new website! It’s clean and straightforward. I have been making your Butter Chicken recipe often, and my husband can’t get enough of it, I used that recipe title to search for it, just to experience your site a little. One little suggestion?…..what if the recipe names were in alphabetic order? Maybe they’re currently in order of when they were posted? Obviously, there’s also the search feature, which is what I ended up using, but I just wondered about the idea of alphabetization (or in your case, alphabetisation. LOL!) I love all your recipes though, and I also love that you share your mother’s recipes with us too.
The website is beautiful and I’m excited to try this recipe!!! I love your recipes because even though I was raised in the US, my mother is from Japan and I love seeing your mom’s recipes as well! 😊
Thank you so much for sharing your recipes, Nagi- I have made several of them with great success! I look forward to trying this one. The website looks great- really eye catching and easy to navigate. Congratulations and thank you 🤗 Merry Christmas to you and yours! 🎄❄️🐾
My mouth is watering – what a scrumptious new website; the food photos are yummy. I love the categories for finding the foods quickly. The button for DOZER is a plus!!
LOVE the new web design! Well organised, easy layout.
Looking forward to trying out the recipe. Merry Christmas from Canada! 😉
Thanks for all your beautiful recipes. Every time I did not know what to make for dinner, I come here to look for idea!
The new site looks great. I have it.
The New website is AWESOME!!! I can find the recipes easier. It is so COLORFUL as well, the food looks like You can eat it off the page!
You have given me the courage to cook a greater varity of foods, Thank You.
Love the new website design. Very clean and easy to navigate. Love your recipes too!!
Website looks amazing! Looking forward to trying this recipe over the Holidays!!