Pimento Cheese Spread--Not!

My sweet husband, Dewey,  was born in the South and raised on collards, cornbread, macaroni pie and pimento cheese. His recipe for pimento cheese, however, does not use any pimento peppers. My Southern husband uses fancy Spanish peppers, so this recipe for Pimento Cheese Spread is actually for Piquillo Cheese Spread. Here it is in a printable format.

The most difficult thing in this recipe is finding the piquillo peppers. We source them at our local Wal-Mart store. You can look for them online or you can use roasted red peppers, but...the piquillo pepper has a unique and very pleasing flavor. You will not be disappointed. Really! And the funny thing is that as recently as two years ago these peppers weren't even on our radar. Thanks to our always-experimenting-with-his-food foodie friend Mike, we are now obsessed!

This recipe takes almost no time to assemble, BUT the cheese goes in the freezer for 20 minutes. While that's happening, you can chop the peppers and measure all of the remaining ingredients. You can also prep the veggies for dipping. I use celery, carrots and those lovely super-sweet peppers. Lay everything out on a large platter and refrigerate. Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before serving. If you have celery leaves, pull off a handful and chop finely. Sprinkle over the spread and vegetables just before serving.

My Dewey chopping the piquillo peppers