Marinated Goat Cheese

Original recipe by: Leslie Brenner

Infuse olive oil with herbs and lemon zest and it makes a marvelous bath for fresh goat cheese. Together they’re delicious to smear on crackers, warm crusty bread or toasted baguette rounds.

Play around with the snack to your heart’s content — adding chopped piquillo pepper, a couple chopped olives, sumac or chile flakes. This version has sun-dried tomato and garlic, but swap ’ em for something else, if the spirit moves you.

You can also use a smaller 4-ounce (112 gram) log of cheese and use about 2/3 of the marinade.

Serves 4 to 8 (depending on whether there are other snacks).

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup (60 ml) best-quality olive oil

• 2 tablespoons chopped thyme leaves

• 1 good-sized garlic clove, minced (optional)

• 2 tablespoon chopped sun-dried tomato (in oil or dry, optional)

• Finely grated zest of half a lemon

• 8-ounce (225-gram) log of fresh goat cheese, well chilled

• Fleur de sel or Maldon salt

• Cracked b…