If you’ve never tried Gruyere cheese, you need to give yourself an excuse to run out and buy some.  I have a love affair going on with this particular cheese because it is nutty and buttery, and is a perfect cheese to have with wine, one of my other favorite things! 

Gruyere cheese is actually a kind of Swiss cheese, but I prefer the more flavorful Gruyere to the Swiss cheese that most of us know.  As a matter of fact, if you have a casserole dish you make that calls for Swiss cheese, try replacing it with Gruyere and you’ll see what I mean.  You’ll probably change all your Swiss cheese recipes to Gruyere!

One of my favorite recipes in which I use Gruyere cheese is a classic French Onion Soup.  I just make a regular recipe for the soup, but then cube up some Guyere cheese, put it in the bottom of oven-proof soup bowls, pour the soup on top, cover and put in the oven on low heat, about 300 degrees, for 1/2 hour or so.  Then, take the bowls out, put a slice of rye bread on top and cover with some grated Gruyere cheese, return to the oven until the cheese just melts on top of the bread.  That is one exquisite bowl of soup!

If you’ve cooked with Gruyere cheese and have a favorite recipe that you’d like to share, I’d love to read it!  Or, if you have recipes that use Swiss cheese, maybe you’d be willing to switch to Gruyere cheese and let me know how your recipe turns out.  Either way, I’m looking forward to hearing from you.