Grilled Banana with Cheese (Cartola)

Name: Grilled Banana with Cheese (Cartola)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Cuisine: Brazil
Ingredients: 4 firm ripe bananas (about 1.5 lb / 700 g), preferably plantain or a firm variety like prata; 2 tbsp (30 g) unsalted butter; 7 oz (200 g) queijo coalho (or halloumi, or a firm salty cheese such as queso fresco mixed with a little mozzarella); 3 tbsp (40 g) granulated sugar; 1 tsp (3 g) ground cinnamon; 2 oz (60 g) rapadura (or dark brown sugar / panela); 3 tbsp (45 ml) water

Cartola Say it: kar-TOH-lah

By the Passport Plate editors. Published November 8, 2026.

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Cartola is a warm dessert from Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil: firm bananas pan-fried in butter, blanketed with slices of salty queijo coalho, dusted with sugar and cinnamon and broiled until the cheese softens and blisters. The contrast is the point — sweet, jammy banana against a squeaky, savoury cheese, with a dark drizzle of rapadura syrup if you like. It is a simple home sweet, served in cafés and family kitchens, and it comes together in minutes from a handful of ingredients.

Grilled Banana with Cheese (Cartola)

Cartola

Pronounced kar-TOH-lah

Serves: 4
Prep: 10 min
Cook: 15 min
Total: 25 min
Level: Easy

Also nut-free and egg-free.

Allergens: contains milk. Check labels on packaged ingredients.

Ingredients

4 servings

Bananas

4 firm ripe bananas (about 1.5 lb / 700 g), preferably plantain or a firm variety like prata
2 tbsp (30 g)30 g (2 tbsp) unsalted butter

Topping

7 oz (200 g)200 g (7 oz) queijo coalho (or halloumi, or a firm salty cheese such as queso fresco mixed with a little mozzarella)
3 tbsp (40 g)40 g (3 tbsp) granulated sugar
1 tsp (3 g)3 g (1 tsp) ground cinnamon

Rapadura syrup (optional)

2 oz (60 g)60 g (2 oz) rapadura (or dark brown sugar / panela)
3 tbsp (45 ml)45 ml (3 tbsp) water

Method

If making the syrup, chop the rapadura and simmer it with the water in a small pan over low heat for 6-8 minutes, stirring, until it melts into a glossy, slightly thickened dark syrup. Set aside.
Heat the oven broiler to high and set a rack about 6 inches (15 cm) below it. Peel the bananas and cut them in half crosswise, then split each piece lengthwise so you have long flat planks.
Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat until it foams. Lay the banana planks in a single layer, working in batches if needed, and cook 2-3 minutes per side until golden at the edges and just tender but still holding their shape.
Arrange the bananas in a shallow ovenproof dish, overlapping slightly and keeping them in one layer. Pour over any butter left in the pan.
Cut the cheese into slices about 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick and lay them over the bananas so the fruit is mostly covered.
Mix the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over the cheese and bananas.
Broil for 3-5 minutes, watching closely, until the cheese is softened, glossy and patched with golden-brown spots and the sugar has begun to bubble at the edges.
Serve hot straight from the dish, drizzling the rapadura syrup over each portion if using.

Regional variant: Cartola assada com calda de rapadura (baked with rapadura syrup)

Instead of broiling, assemble the bananas, cheese, sugar and cinnamon in a buttered dish and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 12-15 minutes, until the cheese melts and the top browns. Melt 3 oz (85 g) rapadura with 4 tbsp (60 ml) water and a pinch of salt into a syrup and pour half over the dessert before baking and the rest at the table — the sauce soaks into the hot banana and makes it saucier and deeper in flavour.

Cook's notes

Use bananas that are ripe but still firm; soft, overripe fruit collapses in the pan and turns to mush under the broiler.
Queijo coalho is salty and squeaky — halloumi is the closest swap, but soak it in water for 10 minutes and pat dry if it is very salty.
Broil on the top rack and stay nearby: the sugar catches and burns within seconds once it starts to color.

Serve with

Serve warm as a dessert, with strong black coffee or a small glass of cachaça or licor de jenipapo.

Make ahead and storage

Best eaten straight from the oven; the fried bananas can be cooked up to 4 hours ahead and kept covered at room temperature, then topped and broiled just before serving.

Grilled Banana with Cheese (Cartola)