Argentine · Starter
Provoleta
- Easy
- 20 min
- roughly 1 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a warm current of chile, with a bitter-edged char at the rim.
Ingredients
- 2 thick rounds (2cm) of provoleta cheese, provolone made for the fire; regular provolone works if dried
- Dried oregano and chili flakes, a confident shower
- A drizzle of olive oil
- A small cast-iron skillet or provoletera, set on the grill
- Crusty bread: the cheese will not wait for ceremony
Equipment
Skillet · Grill
The skills inside
The words inside
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Leave the cheese rounds uncovered in the fridge overnight to dry the surface: dry cheese crusts; moist cheese escapes.
- Heat the little skillet on the parrilla or over medium-high flame until properly hot.
- Cheese in: 2–3 min a side, until a golden crust forms outside and the heart turns molten: the flip takes nerve and a thin spatula. 3 min
- Oregano, chili, oil over; serve IN the skillet, bubbling, with bread for the drag.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Grilling over live coals 77 recipes
- The fire was ready before the food was: coals evenly covered in grey ash with no flames licking through and no raw smoke coming off, and a hot zone and a cooler one both available.
- The grate was hot and clean when the food landed, and the food released cleanly from it when the time came to turn rather than tearing away.
- Marks are browned, not burnt: deep colour where the metal touched, with no carbon flaking off and no soot transferred onto the food.
- The interior reaches its target with a thin gradient, not charred outside and cold within, and not driven through by a flare-up.
- What comes off the fire smells of fire and food only: no raw wood smoke, no fuel, nothing acrid at the back of the nose.
Where it goes wrong It went on over live flames instead of settled coals, so the outside charred bitter in the flare-ups while the middle stayed cold, and everything on the plate tastes of soot.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Alpine white (dry Riesling, Grüner)
- Also Right
- Champagne: bubbles scrub richness
- From the Taps
- Bière de garde
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling apple
Melted cheese coats; acid and carbonation scrub: high-cut whites and Champagne keep the fondue from winning.
Saved on this device and kept across visits: export from My Menu to move them.