Grilled Mastelo with Fig Jam
Chios's legendary sheep milk cheese, grilled golden and served with island fig jam
⏱
5 min
Prep
🍳
10 min
Cook
👥
4
Serves
📊
Easy
Difficulty
Mastelo is the cheese of Chios — a semi-hard sheep and goat milk cheese with a smooth, buttery, slightly salty flavor. When grilled or pan-fried, it develops a golden crust while remaining soft and yielding inside. Paired with sweet fig jam and a drizzle of aged balsamic, it makes an extraordinary appetizer or light meal with crusty bread.
Ingredients
- 400g Mastelo cheese (substitute with Halloumi if unavailable)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 tbsp fig jam (ideally homemade or Chian)
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
- Squeeze of lemon
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Crusty bread to serve
Method
- Remove the cheese from the refrigerator 30 minutes before cooking — room temperature cheese grills more evenly.
- Slice the Mastelo into slabs about 1cm thick.
- Heat a heavy griddle pan or cast iron skillet over high heat until very hot — almost smoking. Add the olive oil.
- Lay the cheese slices in the pan. Do not move them. After 2-3 minutes, a golden crust should have formed. Flip carefully with a spatula and grill the other side for another 2 minutes.
- While the cheese grills, warm the fig jam gently in a small saucepan with the honey and a splash of water until pourable.
- Transfer the grilled cheese to a warm plate. Spoon the fig jam over and around it. Scatter with fresh thyme leaves, grind over plenty of black pepper, and squeeze over a little lemon.
- Serve immediately with crusty bread — this dish waits for no one.