As I mentioned before, I have an extremely loving relationship with cheese.  That could quite possibly explain my love of the roasted feta appetizer that they serve at Vasilis.  When I moved to Maryland almost 2 years ago with the roommate my new coworkers introduced me to Vasilis right away.  It is right across the street from the shop, so it was a rather frequent event that we ordered dinner from there.  Once I tried their roasted feta there was no going back. I still refuse to order just the roasted feta for a meal when I eat at the restaurant, because it certainly is not a good thing to just eat a block of cheese and bread for dinner, but I always want to (and sometimes am able to talk myself into it when we order in).

After a short period of time after my first roasted feta experience I realized just how easy it would be to make on my own.  I still have yet to make it taste quite as magical as they are able to make it over at Vasilis but it is still rather enjoyable (it is especially delicious if you roast your own red peppers).  You had better believe that I will keep trying!

Usually this is delicious over some toasted french bread slices, but as we have no bread in the apartment, and I know how awesome my homemade potato chips are, I make some to eat the cheese with.  It was good this way, but next time I will make sure that I have french bread on hand, because there really is no substitute.

Roasted Feta with Roasted Red Peppers

Ingredients:

• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 block feta cheese
• olive oil
• italian seasoning

Directions:

To roast red peppers: Remove stem and some seeds by cutting a whole in the top of the pepper.   Place the pepper in the oven on the top rack close to the broiler.  Once one side of the pepper looks a little burned rotate the pepper a quarter of a turn.  Continue rotating the pepper until all sides are roasted.  Make sure to watch the pepper carefully, as it only takes a few minutes for each side to be done.  Once all sides are done roasting place the pepper in tin foil and seal the sides making sure the pepper is wrapped in tightly.  Let the pepper sit for about 10 minutes.  Remove the pepper from the foil and use a fork to remove the skin and any remaining seeds.  Slice the pepper into strips.

To roast the feta: Place the feta on a piece of foil and place the foil on a cookie sheet.  Drizzle with a small amount of olive oil and sprinkle with a small amount of italian seasoning.  Place cheese under the broiler until cheese is bubbly and browned.  Place pepper slices on top of cheese and return to the broiler for abou 3 minutes longer.

At this point I like to smash up the cheese a little bit to make it spreadable on toasted bread slices. YUM!