Finn and Mushroom Melt

One of the problems about being a cheeselover is that cheese is not exactly slimming - or at least not in the quantities that I eat it - so I'm always on the lookout for ways to reduce the overall calorie load of any cheese-based meal. Leaving out or reducing the amount of bread, pasta or potatoes is one option. Skipping an accompanying glass of wine another.

At lunch today I fell upon a new way to do a melt. I fried up some sliced portabella mushrooms with a little garlic and parsley then added some sliced Finn, a gloriously rich triple cream-style unpasteurised cow's milk cheese made by Charlie Westhead of the Neal's Yard Creamery in Herefordshire*. It had been at room temperature for an hour so melted beautifully into the mushrooms. The meal was completed by a lightly dressed watercress salad and a small slice of potato bread and frankly was just as good as if I'd made the whole thing on toast (which would probably have gone soggy).

If you can't find Finn, which is available from Neal's Yard and new on-line retailer Pong (from whom I got it) you could use Brie.