When your friends are great, you like to brag about them any way you can, so I’ve got another thank you Jack and Kate post tonight.

Jack's choice

Le collesione di Matteo Ascheri, 1993

Bric Mileui, The Hill of Thousand Eyes

Red table wine of Piedmont, produced with 80% barbera grapes from La Morra and 20% nebbiolo grapes from Verduno

Bottled by Cantine Ascheri Giacomo, Bra, Italia, Estate Bottled, 13% alcohol

While he shared a lovely story about how he got this bottle of wine, I no longer recall its details. (Could drinking the wine have actually contributed to erasing what I learned before drinking it? or am I simply getting old?) Maybe he’ll share them in a comment to this entry? 

In the meantime, I can share what I learned about the Ascheri vineyards. According to their website, the Giacomo Ascheri cellars started off in La Morra in the early 19th century. At that time, the Ascheri vine cultivation method was considered modern for its technical innovations (click here for more). Soon they moved to Bra, a larger center for production/distribution. With several estates, the company is now known for its high quality wines and its attention to traditional methods of cultivation and production. They’ve also got an Osteria with a menu that changes weekly (wish I could work in one of those!) and a four star hotel with a sleek design.

I love that Italy has so many of these family enterprises, built over generations with dedication and passion. And I love in my own “family” of friends, that our shared experiences, new and old, connect us through time and place, whether or not there’s something ‘tangible’ to show for it.

I don’t recall how, exactly, the idea came about, but Ben recently suggested we cook pasta IN wine instead of water. With lots of gift bottles sitting in his cabinet, we’d be putting them to good use, so why not? 

This is not an April Fool’s Day post! I was curious. Am perhaps more so now that I’ve tried cooking pasta in wine. Here’s how it went:

P²G Sauce

Slice chicken breasts into thinner cutlets, and layer in a dish with sliced lemons, cilantro sprigs, sliced garlic, and salt. Cover the chicken with white wine and marinate overnight.

Caramelize a sliced sweet onion (I began the braise with a bit of wine).

Add some olive oil, sliced chicken, roasted red peppers and snow peas to the pan and saute 5-10 minutes or so.

Add the cooked pasta to the pan to coat, then serve. 

Marvel at how delicious it was, sigh with relief and immediately start imagining variations on the theme. Though the texture of the penne was compromised (a bit gummy), its ‘lemony’ flavor was pleasant. Wonder what kind of other sauces might work well with it?

I think the experiment went well. So well that I wondered if people have been doing this for some time. They have.  Check out this Mark Bittman piece written 10 years ago on the technique. He suggests cooking the spaghetti for about 5 minutes in water before transferring it to a pot of boiling wine, and dressing it in an aglio olio with pepperoncino. Interesting idea ….

Met Pittsburgh friends for dinner at L’Oca tonight, and was pleased to have the opportunity to share my last bottle of wine: a Piemontese bonarda, brought by Carla and Alberto in Novemeber.

The story of bonarda is a bit convoluted in the various web sources I’ve seen, so I’m not really sure how to describe it here other than that it is a DOC red wine that’s slightly frizzante. According to the Regione Piemonte’s web site, many wines are known by the name of bonarda, but these are distinct from the bonarda piemontese, which is produced exclusively in several regions of Piemonte:

La Bonarda è coltivata esclusivamente in Piemonte, e soprattutto sulle colline del Torinese (Chierese) e dell’Astigiano ad esse adiacenti (Castelnuovo don Bosco, Albugnano, Pino, ecc.). È presente anche nel Pinerolese, in Bassa Val Susa e sporadicamente nel Canavese.

I got to wondering if/how I could explore the bonarda wines, but quickly discovered that the government agency that controls alcohol in my state sells only one Argentine bonarda. Hmmm. Moore Brothers doesn’t sell it either. Guess I’ll have to wait until my next visit to Italy?

Another dinner party favorite from days gone by: mushroom tart. We decided to make this as an antipasto instead of bruschette. Smelling it baking brought back lots of happy memories. We made a version of the tart with a wine crust, but my favorite version for mushroom uses a lemon zested pate brisee. 

Wine crust:

1 stick plus several tablespoons of cold butter, cut into pieces. 

2 cups flour

pinch of salt

1/2 cup white wine

In a food processor, pulse the butter, flour and salt until crumbly, resembling coursemeal. Add the wine and run the processor until it forms a ball. No food processor? Shame on you. Put the butter, flour and salt in a large bowl and use a pastry blender to break up the butter. No pastry blender? Sigh. Use two knives, or better yet, your own hands: working very quickly to crumble the butter into the flour. Add the white wine and form a ball.

Whatever method you use, the trick is not to work the dough too long. Press the dough into a disc, wrap it in plastic and put it in the fridge for an hour or so. You can make the dough ahead, or freeze it for a month or two. 

My description not vivid enough? Watch this video with Cat Cora, a professional:

When the dough is firm, roll it into the desired shape and place it in a buttered tart pan. Cover in tin foil and place some dried beans on it before precooking for 10 minutes or so at 375. 

The filling we used was mushroom, but you can use any vegetable you like. Eggplant works really well.

Filling

Saute assorted mushrooms, lightly salted, in garlic and oil. Let cool. (Note: if you use dried porcini mushrooms, reconstitute them in warm water and you’ll get a strong earthy flavor.)

Beat 3-4 eggs in a large bowl. Add in desired amount of cream – until the mixture is a lighter yellow. More cream = milder egg flavor. Less = eggy, quiche-like flavor.

Add the mushrooms and a generous amount of grated parmigiano.

Pour the mixture into the tart shell and bake for 20 minutes or so, until the top begins to brown. 

This torta salata is fairly simply to make, and always leaves a lasting impression. My friend Veronica – fellow granddaughter of Italian immigrants, but from Buenos Aires – first taught me how to make these while we were in grad school. I still consider torte salate to be the perfect party food. Let me know if you make them, or have any ideas for fillings. Have fun!

What’s not to love about moscato d’asti, especially when it comes in a bottle with a bird on it? Too bad I couldn’t snag the label, then frame and hang it in my kitchen.

We drank moscato this weekend, and I got to wondering why I enjoy this wine so much. Is it the floral bouquet? the low alcohol content? the memories of time with my Italian family? all of the above?

Made from what is said to be one of the oldest grape varieties, moscato bianco, moscato is a sweet and lightly sparking dessert wine produced in Piemonte. One of fewer than 40 DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) wines, moscato d’asti is a real treat. 

Turns out the winery that produced this bottle has been around since 1939 in Treiso d’Alba, a village “at 400 m. of altitude on the first Langhe’s slopes” in the provincia di Cuneo. Here’s an excerpt from their website:

The history of this cellar is a scene of a family’s country life that, generation after generation, has been exalting the tradition of esteemed wine.

Giovanni Lodali gave life to a passion that had involved him for years. So in the respect of the “master” tradition he began to make wine and he founded the “Lodali’s” wine farm. In 1958 Giovanni and his son Lorenzo, who obtained a diploma in oenology thanks to his innate and intense interest in wine, gave life to the first Barbaresco and Barolo wines. Lorenzo Lodali continues his father’s project with fervour and it is with “Renzo” that the Lodali name has become synonim of esteemed wine. In 1982 he died and his wife Rita went ahead with the project with so much tenacity and obstinacy that Lodali’s wines entered the international trade.

They’ve also got a bed and breakfast with an invitation for visitors. Just saw round trip tickets to Italy for only $239 (taxes included); wish it were a better season to travel!

Happy birthday to me! Who cares if it’s six months after the fact? 

I shared this with a table full of fabulous women tonight at L’Oca.

Will write about the food we ate tomorrow. Some interesting new dishes appeared.

I actually *do* eat more than just pasta, risotto and gelato. Honestly. 

But can I write about something that isn’t Italian? This is the silly question I carry around in my head on nights like tonight, until I find some way that I can twist the dish into something Italianized. I used “Italian flat parsley”; could I write about how much better I think it is than the curly variety? I used zucchini; but, really, how many times can I wax poetic about my favorite vegetable? I used Italian “roma” tomatoes, but they were waxy and added only color. I used my Italian Inox truffle slicer, but I’ve already written about it last year.  Wait a sec: I poached my dinner in pinot grigio! Eureka!

Pinot grigio, a light white wine perfect for cooking. And maybe drinking too, though I rarely do.  The only thing I really know about the wine is that it comes from Veneto and Fiuli, in Italy’s Northeast, and is consistently the cheapest white wine at the PA State Stores. 

Today’s dinner took 10 minutes. Seriously. Put a piece of salmon in a skillet. Slice a tomato and spread it on top of the salmon. Shave in some fennel and zucchini, sprinkle parsley and wine. Add a pinch of salt and a splash of olive oil and  cook over medium heat. Perfetto!

Che bello to see Italian wines featured in the NYT: 

The Piedmont region is home to the noble and expensive Barolos and Barbarescos. Nonetheless, myriad inexpensive reds are still available. Of the everyday reds, I generally prefer the tart, raspy barberas, like a 2007 from Renato Ratti and a 2006 from Oddero, to the pleasingly bitter dolcettos.

Sometimes, though, nothing takes the place of nebbiolo, the grape of Barolo and Barbaresco. At a time when practically unknown nebbiolo wines from Valtellina generally cost $25 to $30, it’s astounding to me that Produttori del Barbaresco, a great cooperative, can produce a nebbiolo wine for $19. But yes, its 2006 Langhe nebbiolo, made from young vines or lesser grapes, is just $19. It doesn’t have the stuffing of a Barbaresco, but it’s all there in a most pleasant microcosm.

For dessert, perhaps a light and frothy moscato d’Asti? G. D. Vajra, a good Barolo producer, makes an exceptionally delicious, sweet and peachy version for about $19.

I wonder if I can get that nineteen dollar nebbiolo at the State Store in Philly? Still have my birthday moscato in the fridge, six months after the fact. How sad is that?

My way-too-heavy "cabernet" enamel cast iron Dutch oven

I’ve taken to roasting things in my cast iron Dutch oven: sweet onion, red onion, red potatoes, sliced fennel, baby carrots, and – don’t be shocked – a few whole garlic cloves. I threw in handfuls of chopped cilantro and parsley, stirred it all up with some olive oil, salt and pinot grigio, then added half a chicken cut up in pieces and baked it for about an hour or so. 

Nothing at all about this technique is remotely Italian. Maybe that’s a good thing.

Have wanted to take one of the wine classes at Tria for about a year now, but just got into my first one tonight. Led by John McNulty of Viva Vino Imports, the 90-minute class took us through 8 types of Italian wines, moving from the light and fruity to the full and dry, across both whites and reds. Here’s what we had (wine, producer, year, place):

Prosecco Brut, Conte Mangesa, NV (Veneto)

Rieling/Trebbiano “Il Bianco di Ciccio”, Cantina Zaccagnini, ‘07 (Abruzzo)

Pinot Grigio “ppsos”, Villa D’arna, ‘06 (Friuli)

Montepulciano d’Abruzzo “Ikebana”, Cantina Zaccagnini, ‘07 (Abruzzo)

Chianti Classico, Tenute Toscane, ‘04 (Tuscany)

Rosso di Montalcino, Mastrojanni, ‘00 (Montalcino)

Nebbiolo/Barbera “Acanzio”, Molino, ‘94 (Piemonte)

Amarone “Vigneti di Jaco”, Casetta, ‘05 (Valpolicella)

On the small cheese plate next to the wines, most noteworthy was the La Tur, from Piemonte (hooray!), made with goat, sheep and cow’s milk. It was served with a small spoon of honey.

What did I learn in the class?

• The “best” Italian whites are from Alto Adige or Friuli. 
• Barbera is the “pinot noir” of Italy. 
• The ‘brunello’ name was created by the Banfi family. 
• Amarone is made with the corvino grape.
• Fellow Spin instructor Ed is also a fellow foodie and works at Tria on the side. He knows Luca.  

Don’t know exactly what I was thinking this class was going to be, but sipping 8 types of wine in 90 minutes without eating is a stupid proposition for wine lightweights. By the time we reached the wines I really enjoyed (the nebbiolo and amarone), I was out of cheese and patience, wishing I had both eaten something before the class and had dinner plans after. Instead, I walked over to that new brick oven pizzeria on Chestnut (Mix), where, in desperation, I ate a terrible piece of broccoli-tomato pizza. Sigh. At least I ate well at lunch.