Food & Drink

Cheese Grits Cakes

A savory treat for breakfast and beyond from Arnaud’s in New Orleans

February/March 2020

Photo: The Voorhes

Tommy DiGiovanni, the chef de cuisine at Arnaud’s in New Orleans, makes grits cakes with yellow stone-ground grits baked with cheese and cut into disks. “Think of the grits cake kind of like a biscuit,” DiGiovanni says, “and top it with whatever you want.” At the restaurant, he serves them with traditional Creole-style grillades—veal scallopini braised in a rich brown gravy. But they go just as well with country ham and redeye gravy, tomato sauce, or chili.

MORE: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO GRITS

Ingredients

Yield: 8 servings
- 1 qt. milk
- ¾ cup butter, divided
- 1 cup yellow stone-ground grits
- 1 cup grated Swiss cheese
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- ⅓ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine milk and ½ cup butter in a 2-gallon saucepan or a large Dutch oven, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add grits slowly, and cook for 35 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat, and add a little milk if the grits look too stiff. Blend the grits with an immersion blender for 30 seconds, until creamy. Add Swiss cheese and a pinch of salt and pepper to taste, and mix well with a wooden spoon.

Pour the mixture into a buttered half sheet pan and spread into an even layer with an offset spatula. Dot with remaining ¼ cup butter and sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, cool, and refrigerate (uncovered) for 30 minutes, and then cut into disks with a 2½-inch pastry cutter. Transfer the disks to a parchment-paper-lined sheet pan. To serve, rewarm in 200°F oven.

CJ Lotz Diego is Garden & Gun’s senior editor. A staffer since 2013, she wrote G&G’s bestselling Bless Your Heart trivia game, edits the Due South travel section, and covers gardens, books, and art. Originally from Eureka, Missouri, she graduated from Indiana University and now lives in Charleston, South Carolina, where she tends a downtown pocket garden with her florist husband, Max.