Marinated Goat Cheese

This cheese multi-tasks.  It tops and dresses a salad.  It can be an appetizer, or part of a cheese plate. It can go on homemade pizza or bruschetta.  It's the perfect host gift. It has a high creativity quotient as there are endless variations on this theme, and you can recycle interesting jars and containers to put them in.  Trust me you will get repaid in spades for your modest investment in a little log of goat cheese.

Most marinated cheese that you buy, even handmade artisan examples at Farmer's Markets, will use less expensive oils and vinegars because they need to worry about their bottom line.  One of the great things about making this yourself is that you can use top quality ingredients.

I'm going to reuse the jar from the ridiculously expensive marinated feta cheese that I bought the other day. Take that, ridiculously expensive cheese.

Marinated Goat Cheese with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Basil
1 5 oz log of plain goat cheese
about 1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp sherry vinegar
1 Tbsp sun-dried tomatoes, in thin julienne
1 Tbsp basil leaves, sliced in thin ribbons
1 strip lemon zest, sliced thinly
a squeeze of lemon juice
salt
pepper 
an empty 8 oz jar, or other airtight storage container

• Carefully slice the goat cheese into disks.  Don't worry if it crumbles, just form the cheese back into slices. 
• In a small bowl or measuring cup mix 1/2 cup oil, 3 Tbsp vinegar, lemon juice and zest, as if you were making a salad dressing.  Add salt and pepper and keep tasting and adjusting the seasoning until you have it just the way you like it.
• Thinly slice about 3 sun-dried tomatoes.  Stack and roll the basil leaves and slice into thin ribbons.  Add the tomatoes and the basil to the marinade mixture.
• Lay one disk of cheese at the bottom of the clean jar.  Spoon some of the mixture on top and continue to layer the marinade with the rest of the cheese.  Pour in the remaining marinade to fill the jar and cap tightly.  
• Refrigerate overnight, or until ready to use.

Of course this is just one of zillions of variations.  I'll try feta or mozzerella cheese next time.