Cindystar: Šopska salad - Insalata Šopska

la ricetta in italiano qui

Spring is quite over and we are going to face the most colorful, sunniest and richest season as well as the nicest and most various selection of vegetables and fruit.

In a few words, salad time is here, whatever made with any sort of vegetables and fruit.

Šopska salad is a is a traditional Bulgarian cold salad made with onions, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes, topped with a typical Bulgurian cheese, Sirene, also named white brine cheese.

Less known but strongly brought to fame is Sinjo Sirene, the unique Bulgarian blue cheese, made in Tcherni Vit village and now become a Slow Food Presidia.

The cheese is kept in brine (which forms spontaneously) for a period that can last up to two years. The wooden containers remain in the pasture until the end of the grazing season and in October, they are moved to the valley and placed in the cellar. Here they are opened to allow the moisty air of the little village of Tcherni Vit to encourage the flowering of noble rot that cover the cheese and penetrate into the dough, turning the cheese in one of the few natural blue cheese in the world.

This salad is a sort of tribute to Bulgaria as its colors are the same of its flag: white, red and green.

You need:

onion
tomatoes
cucumbers
pepperoni
chopped parsley
extra virgin olive oil
salt
Sirene or Sinjo Sirene grated cheese *
sliced hard-boiled egg, optional

olives, optional
fresh chili pepper, optional

* can be substituted with Greek Feta, French Roquefort or German Edelpilz

Wash and cut the vegetables into small cubes (discard seeds from tomatoes).
Make an emulsion with oil, salt and parsley and season the salad.
Just before serving, sprinkle with cheese and add sliced hard-boiled egg and some olives if you like.