This roasted garlic gorgonzola butter is perfect for topping off steaks, smashed or mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, crusty bread, or steamed or grilled veggies.
I remember the first time I tasted real, high quality farm butter, on a food tour in Dublin, Ireland. It was like no butter I’d ever tasted before, and honestly was a bit of a revelation!
Since then, I’ve become a bit of a butter fan. It really is the perfect condiment, and good quality butter melted on a piece of crusty rustic bread is hard to beat some days.
And while I love good butter on its own, I also love adding flavor.
When flavored with herbs, cheeses, and other additions, it’s is known as compound butter.
And this roasted garlic and gorgonzola butter is truly a fantastic introduction to the world of flavored butters.
What is Compound Butter?
Compound butter is basically flavored, soft butter. It’s made by mixing in different spices and herbs, cheeses, and other flavors into soft butter. In the case of this gorgonzola butter, it’s a combo of gorgonzola blue cheese, roasted garlic, and herbs.
It’s typically served over steak (pair with steakhouse gorgonzola wedge salad for max blue cheese deliciousness!), but it’s great on a number of mains and side dishes.
Anything you might top with butter – baked potatoes, steamed veggies, grilled steak – you can typically use the compound version, so long as the flavors in your compound butter go with the dish.
Common compound butters include herbed and gorgonzola blue cheese, but there are plenty of creative recipes out there, too! Ancho chilli and lime, anyone?
The Gorgonzola Treat You Didn’t Know You Needed in Your Life
Blue cheese butter made with gorgonzola is probably most commonly used as steak butter, but steaks don’t have to have all the fun!
Compound butters are also amazing on a baked potatoes, smashed potatoes, or used instead of unflavored butter in mashed potates.
It’s fabulous on a warm slice of rustic crusty bread, or on steamed veggies.
You could even use it to make your own crostini!
This Roasted Garlic Gorgonzola Cheese Butter is Easy
One of the things I love about this recipe is is it’s easy to make!
While I get into more details below, you more or less just need to mix and mash all the ingredients together, roll them into a log, and stick em in the fridge to chill and mingle for a bit.
This recipe calls for roasted garlic, butter, gorgonzola blue cheese, fresh parsley and a light hand grinding in some fresh cracked black pepper.
And while I use gorgonzola cheese in this version, you can sub for other blue cheeses if you prefer, based on your taste preferences, budget, and what’s available in your area.
While fairly easy to make, the result is outstanding, and this compound roasted garlic gorgonzola butters is an awesome melting butter for steaks, smashed potatoes or mashed potatoes, and plenty of other dishes.
How to Make Roasted Garlic Gorgonzola Butter
What You’ll Need for this Butter Recipe
- 1 bulb of garlic, roasted, peeled and mashed
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, brought to room temperature for about 1 hour
- 1/3 cup gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
- 1 to 2 tablespoons fresh chopped herbs such as Italian parsley, chives, oregano, sage, thyme (choose two or three, depending on what you have on hand)
- Fresh ground black pepper (a few turns of the pepper mill, around 1/4 teaspoon)
How to Make this Recipe
First, bring the butter to room temperature, which will take about an hour.
While the butter warms up, get to roasting the garlic. I pre-heat my oven to 350F, and then slice off the top of the head of the garlic. Place it on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and cover loosely with a square of aluminium foil.
Bake the garlic for 30 minutes, and then check with a fork. You want the cloves to be soft, browning, and easy to mash. Keep cooking for another 30 minutes or so until it’s soft and roasted.
Squeeze the roasted cloves out of the head of the garlic, and mash with a fork in a small bowl, or in a food processor.
In a mixing bowl combine butter and roasted garlic, using a fork to mash it together and combine. Add in the herbs and gorgonzola cheese, combining thoroughly. Season with fresh ground pepper.
Place the butter on a sheet of plastic wrap of wax paper, and roll into a log shape, wrapping the plastic wrap around the butter and twisting the ends to seal it. Place in the fridge to chill before serving.
Prep Time
To prep, you need about 1 hour to bring the butter to room temperature, and about 1 hour to roast the garlic (which can happen together, at the same time).
On the other end, you need to chill the mixture for about 30 minutes.
The actual active time required to make this recipe, other than cooking the garlic, is about 10 to 15 minutes.
What Herb Variations Work for this Recipe?
Italian parsley, chives, oregano, sage, and thyme are good choices for this recipe. I suggest you choose two to three, based on what you have growing in your garden (or available at your supermarket).
Tips for Serving Gorgonzola Butter
If you’re serving this over top steaks or grilled meat, poultry, or fish, make sure you add the pat of butter to the meat right after it comes off the grill or out of the oven. You want it to melt and start drizzling, dripping, and running across the surface of your steaks to give good coverage, and spread that richness out!
Really the same goes if you’re going to serve it over baked or smashed potatoes, or in mashed potatoes, or over steamed or grilled veggies. Add it when it’s piping hot so it melts beautifully into the food.
How Long Will This Butter Last
This gorgonzola butter should keep in your fridge for up to a week in an airtight container. Alternatively, you can freeze it for up to 3 months or so, but you’ll want to wrap it tightly to prevent freezer burn.
Final Thoughts
If you love garlic and blue cheese, this Gorgonzola garlic butter is for you! This recipe will show you how to make compound garlic blue cheese butter with gorgonzola (or stilton). It’s an extravagant but surprisingly easy way to add the rich creaminess of blue cheese to your side dishes.