We ate these celery boats filled with cheese cream yesterday. What better occasion, Valentine’s Day, to experiment with a new finger food?
The occasion was given to me by my dear friend Leti from the blog Senza è buono, who with her contest encouraged me (since I made these muffins) to research and learn more about gluten-free foods.
My initial idea was to try making gluten-free crackers, but work commitments got the better of me (or luckily, from another perspective!). And so in the end… our Valentine’s Day saw us being raw, and we listened to… crunch crunch, chomp chomp… munching on our beautiful celery boats filled with cheese cream flavored in three different ways to please everyone’s taste:
🌿 with parsley and lemon, because the taste of lemon with celery goes incredibly well,
💪 with green pepper, because someone in this house loves green pepper a lot,
🔸 with paprika and toasted hazelnuts, because all four of us are fond of toasted hazelnuts, and also because a cream that wasn’t white was needed (visual appeal matters too!).
Today I want to mention my children: Fabrizio, who gave me the beautiful slate you see in the photos for Christmas, and Flavia who gave me the mini finger bowls in the photo below, which turned out perfect for serving the three types of cheese cream used for our celery boats. 💝
👇 If you want to vary and use other sauces for this recipe, try these: 👇
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: No cooking
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- celery (as desired)
- 7 oz ricotta
- 7 oz fresh spreadable cheese
- 3 oz Parmesan cheese
- one third of the cheese cream (made with the main ingredients)
- 1 tsp green peppercorns (or pink, I used both)
- one third of the cheese cream (made with the main ingredients)
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 pinch spicy chili pepper
- 1 tbsp toasted hazelnuts
- 2 tbsp carrots (chopped)
- one third of the cheese cream (made with the main ingredients)
- 1 tsp chopped parsley
- 1 tsp chopped arugula
- lemon zest (grated)
Tools
- Chopper
- Bowls for appetizers or buffet
- Plate Slate
Steps
Pour the cheeses into a bowl and mix them with a spoon.
Divide the cream into three parts.
👉 It’s already great as a dipping cream like this, white and simple. 😉
For the green (or pink) pepper cream:
Crush the green (or pink, I made a mix) peppercorns in a mortar and add them to one part of the cheese cream.
If you like it very spicy, you can leave some peppercorns whole and add a few as decoration.
For the paprika and hazelnut cream:
Toast the hazelnuts in a pan, a few minutes will be enough.
Finely chop with a mini robot a small carrot and then add a couple of tablespoons (or the amount you prefer) of chopped carrot to the cheese mixture.
Flavor with paprika and chili to taste (or hot paprika).
Chop the hazelnuts with a knife and add them to the mixture.
👉 Regarding the quantity of hazelnuts, the tablespoon I gave in the ingredients is indicative, I honestly went by feeling.
For the parsley and lemon cream:
Chop some arugula and parsley.
Add the chopped herbs (a couple of tablespoons) to the third part of the cheese cream.
Also add a nice grate of lemon zest.
Preparation of the celery boats:
Put the three cheese creams in the fridge and in the meantime prepare the celery boats.
Wash and cut the celery stalks into pieces, about 3 inches long.
It’s better to prefer the inner stalks of the head, which are more tender.
Fill the celery using a piping bag to get a nice aesthetic effect.
Or serve the sauces in individual bowls and let everyone scoop the cream directly with the celery. After all, it’s a finger food, so let the guests use… their fingers! 😉
Serve with joy! 😀
No Salt Tips
Remember, if you don’t already know, I cook without salt. These cheese creams don’t need additional salt as there’s already Parmesan cheese for flavor, and pepper, paprika, chili, and lemon zest do the rest. 😉
Before saying goodbye, I can’t help but leave you, as always, my no salt tips 😉 See you at the next recipe!
If you’re interested in reducing or eliminating salt, always remember to:
▫ Gradually reduce salt, the palate needs to get used to it slowly and shouldn’t notice the progressive reduction.
▫ Use spices. Chili, pepper, curry, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, cumin…
▫ Use herbs. Basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, mint…
▫ Use seeds. Sesame, pine nuts, almonds, walnuts…
▫ Use spicy vegetables or fruits. Garlic, onion, lemon, orange…
▫ Use my vegetable granule without salt and gomasio.
▫ Prefer fresh foods.
▫ Avoid cooking in water, prefer cooking methods that don’t disperse flavors (grill, foil, steam, microwave)
▫ Avoid bringing the salt shaker to the table!
▫ Occasionally allow yourself some indulgence. It’s good for the mood and helps perseverance.
If you don’t want or can’t give up salt:
▫ You can still try my recipes, salting according to your habits.
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