How Gordon Ramsay Adds A Kick To Pimento Cheese Dip

If pimento cheese dip is not yet in your kitchen rotation, the time has come to interrogate that absence. Not only is the Southern staple that marries pimento peppers and cheddar cheese marvelous in mac and cheese, it's a no-brainer added to a fried green tomato sandwich and still excellent served with little more than toast points. Pimento cheese dip is terrifically easy to whip up at home with those compulsory base ingredients, plus cream cheese, mayo, and a few everyday household seasonings. But it's also a cinch to customize, including a smoky adaptation from fiery celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

Ramsay's riff involves sprinkling crispy paprika breadcrumbs on the pimento cheese dip of your choice. According to his recipe, to prepare the topping, he heats a tablespoon of olive oil, a tablespoon of unsalted butter, and half a teaspoon of smoked paprika (made with roasted peppers rather than simply dried ones) on low. After five minutes, he increases the temperature to medium and stirs in half a cup of panko to toast until golden. Once your pimento cheese dip has cooled, top it with the breadcrumbs for a crunchy, smoky addition to the uniquely zesty dip.

Unlike with a baconnaise, which uses bacon fat as a mayonnaise ingredient and can also infuse a pimento cheese dip with extra flavor, you can easily incorporate Gordon Ramsay's toasted paprika breadcrumbs with a store-bought dip thanks to some obvious chemistry. Semi-homemade baconnaise doesn't work well because incorporating the two separate wet ingredients — bacon fat and previously emulsified mayonnaise — won't properly mingle to affect the typical mayo texture. But Ramasy's dip addition incorporates a dry ingredient as a topping, even though mixing it in would actually be fine in this case, if consumed quickly so the breadcrumbs stay crisp.

While you probably want to stick to the freshly pre-made, refrigerated pimento dip from your grocer's deli when serving large festive groups, you can also add it to the shelf-stable variety when preparing petite party platters for one. The latter is smoother, with enhanced brightness, and often a little more obviously artificial to taste, but even those mass-market flavors have a place. And, with the addition of Ramsay's crispy, smoky breadcrumbs, that place is on your plate.