Blue Cheese and Salami Baked Penne

I felt like having a hearty comfort-food type lunch today, and so I decided to make baked penne with salami in the sauce and pecorino romano and blue cheese (for a nice melty effect) on top.

The result was a satisfying combination of flavors. The sweetness of the tomato sauce combined with the occasional peppery cube of salami worked nicely with the blue cheese from Jasper Hill Farm, an artisanal cheese maker in Vermont. I’d tried Constant Bliss, their mold-ripened cheese last summer and I was impressed, so I picked up their Bayley Hazen Blue yesterday at the natural market. The flavor is unlike any blue cheese I’ve tasted. It’s mellow and strong at the same time, without being overly salty. Perfect for this dish.

I’d gotten the salami at the a new conventional grocery store in town. My husband and I decided to check it out, despite having a Pollan-esque disdain for conventional supermarkets. I was checking out their cheese selection and ended up reading the labels of a couple of their salami for nitrates. I love salami, but it’s very difficult to find good salami, especially nitrate-free salami. It had been a while since I’d had any salami though and I was tempted, since this was made without nitrates. The flavor turned out to be a little too sweet and the texture too rubbery on it’s own though, which was why I thought maybe I’d throw it in with the sauce. Melt some of the fats and into the sauce and cut the sweetness with the tomatoes’ acidity. I like to use a gratin dish because it’s shallow and results in more cheese per bite.

Blue Cheese and Salami Baked Penne – serves 4

1 T olive oil
1 clove of garlic, pressed
2 C tomato, diced
1/4 C scallion, chopped
2 T tomato paste
1/4 C chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 C diced salami
1/4 C pecorino romano
1/4 C blue cheese, crumbled (I prefer to crumble it myself rather than buy it crumbled, which I find dry)
2 C dried penne, ziti or your favorite short pasta

Pre-heat oven to 350. Cook pasta as directed, drain, rinse or toss with olive oil, if desired.

Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and scallions and cook one minute. Do not let it brown. Stir in tomato paste. Add stock, tomatoes and salami. Allow to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.

Pour pasta into a shallow baking dish, pour sauce over pasta, turning with a large spoon or spatula to coat the pasta. Top evenly with cheese and bake for 15 minutes.