Random idea: Fra Diavolo sauce with blue cheese?

[fldhkybnva]

I am clearly too unoccupied on my staycation and pondering
Fra Diavolo, but am also in the mood for blue cheese. Has anyone ever tried this? It seems like just a variation of blue cheese marinara which works. I'd hate to ruin a good lb of shrimp so that I'd inquire if anyone has a better palette to judge likely good flavor combinations.

[westsidegal]

i love blue cheese.
i love fra diavolo sauce.
but
would not like them together.
especially would not like them with shrimp added to the mix.
(just my opinion)

(last week made some appetizers with blue cheese:
stuffed pitted dates with the cheese. stole the idea from a favorite restaurant)

[c oliver]

Did you heat the dates after stuffing?

[Bacardi1]

Love Fra Diavolo sauce & love all blue cheeses. But together? Absolutely not. At least not for me.

Except for blue cheese crumbled over nice thick fresh slices of tomatoes fresh from the garden, I'm definitely NOT in the tomato-sauce-with-blue-cheese crowd.

I vote for enjoying them separately, & if you want, add some blue cheese to a spoonful or two of the sauce by itself & taste test it.

[treb]

I think you have too much time, to think, on your hands, bad choice. Have the blu cheese as an app with some bubbly, then a spicey FraDiavlo for the main.

[Karl S]

Blue cheese and shrimp: bad combo. Maximizes the potential for something that tastes like vomit.

Blue cheese and marinara: bad combo if the blue cheese is any good.

Shrimp and marinara: Good combo. Also good with red pepper flakes.

The three together: awful combo.

YMMV. I am not a fan of the growing American prediction for BAM-ing for BIGGER! BOLDER! FLAVORS! (And, of course, CHEESIER!)

[c oliver]

Karl S, I especially like your last paragraph. The more I cook the more I see this. As I age - dammit :) - instead of wanting the BAM, I'm seeking the more subtle.

[Karl S]

Interesting about age: as people age, their sense of smell/taste tends to get less sensitive, and they tend to want to increase salt, spice, sugar, et cet. Also true for people who suffer allergies that affect their nasal/sinus passages...and gustatory rhinitis.

[c oliver]

I think for me is that over the years I've come to appreciate the complexity of flavors and textures of really good food (or not so good food). And becoming a better cook (thanks CH) has added to that. But, yeah, with things like Sichuan, my taste buds seem to scream MORE!

[hotoynoodle]

"YMMV. I am not a fan of the growing American prediction for BAM-ing for BIGGER! BOLDER! FLAVORS! (And, of course, CHEESIER!)"

^^this.

although i was born and bred in the states i simply do not understand the american compulsion to put cheese on everything all the time. and bleu cheese on shrimp on marinara sauce sounds positively sickening.

i also can't stand cheesy/creamy starters. it utterly deadens the palate and often kills the appetite.

sounds like the op went a different way anyway. :)

[c oliver]

this again!!!

I believe you and I were part of a conversation recently regarding heavy and cheesy starters as part of menu planning. We both mentioned IIRC how nice it is, with a Spanish meal, to have a few olives and almonds and not the manchego and the serrano. We do seem to have an awful lot of people in the country for whom more is better.

[hotoynoodle]

lol, yes, me again. :)

i am always a little grossed out by the frequent dairy-centric menus lots of peeps propose on here -- especially when offered in terms of "elegant" or "romantic", lol.

don't get me wrong, i LOVE the stuff, but i don't want it always on everything everyday. it's a peculiarly american bent. perhaps because krap cheese is so cheap?

[Karl S]

In American vernacular cooking, as it were, cheese basically acts as a cover for mediocre food when used in this way by disguising the lack of good ingredients and execution. It's an almost universal crutch (hot sauce is fast becoming another one), so we reach for it the way other peasant cultures reach for other things.

Realize that, for most of recorded history, most of humanity has eaten a diet based very largely on a staple starch (breads, porridges, and gruels from grains, and also tubers, et cet.) In the US, processed foods now fulfill this function.

[c oliver]

This is one of those times when I wish CH had a "like" button!

[Bacardi1]

"American vernacular cooking"? Puhleeze.

And I respectfully disagree with your dictate that "cheese basically acts as a cover for mediocre food. . . .". And as a "universal crutch".

In fact, your entire post reeks of personal tunnel vision. Sad.

[jaykayen]

That sounds.... horrible.

[boogiebaby]

This x1000.

Some things should not be paired together. Make a blue cheese dressing with the cheese, and serve a salad for your first course, and keep the sauce as intended.

[fldhkybnva]

Yea I actually had a piece of bleu and my in the head craving died. I went with a lovely plate of shrimp fra diavolo with mushrooms. I think we all seemed to come to the same conclusion.

[c oliver]

How did you prepare the mushrooms? When we're feeling decadent, we'll saute quarters or halves, depending on size, in butter with s&p and garlic powder. Get 'em with a little crust on them and sprinkle with blue cheese at the very end. But I don't really see that with your main. More of a red meat accompaniment.

[fldhkybnva]

I love your idea. I often do roasted mushrooms with blue cheese. Tonight I just did a quick saute and threw them in at the end.

[Veggo]

Ouch. Too many moving parts with strong flavors that don't meld well.

[c oliver]

I've never heard of "blue cheese marinara" either! This sounds like a riff on Buffalo chicken wings ? Also I'm not a complete purist when it comes to the Italian "rule" about no cheese on seafood, but I'm not seeing this either.

[biondanonima]

I could maybe get behind blue cheese and fra diavolo sauce, but not with shrimp. With chicken, perhaps. But I would probably try that combo on its own, or as a side dish for beef. Or, as kengk suggested, just have some blue cheese toasts as a first course and keep your shrimp fra diavolo separate.

[fldhkybnva]

I think the blue cheese bread sound great.

[coll]

Or bleu cheese dressing on some salad, or garlic bread with bleu cheese/gorgonzola broiled on top which is a big favorite around here. No to Fra Diablo however. It might be nice as a bleu cheese/gorgonzola sauce by itself, but no seafood, please.

Of course, if it's only you, go right ahead, I've made some pretty wacky things when I don't have to share with anyone.

[kengk]

I would put the cheese on some nice bread and eat it along with the Fra Diavolo.