Gentile's The Wine Sellers: Food and Wine Ideas

FOOD AND WINE IDEAS

Dinner Wines

1984 Lake: I learned this wine was to be included the day of the tasting, and could not reach the SWAT member to tell him that he was giving a $500 wine to the effort. I am glad I did not. The finest wine of the night in my mind -perfectly handled, brilliantly placed, and a real jewel. This Lake offering is from one of the smallest vineyards in the world, not quite an acre. It lies in a microclimate which is very slow to ripen, but when it does, the wine is spectacular. Apparently, in ‘84, the wine gods were generous, as this red was very saturated with color, fruit, and finesse. Damn near every darker skinned fruit was at play -blackberries, plums, cherries, raspberries, currants- yet the melding with such characters as cedar, tobacco/cigar box, licorice, and earth were evident. The rush of flavors had an imploding effect on the palate, and it stayed around longer than your ex-wife’s divorce attorney. Simply, a majestic wine and an affirmation that this is one great vineyard.

1987 Lake: In 1989, Al shared with Bunky and me that he hoped that making an ‘87 Lake was a good idea. Given that the vintage was widely heralded, I did not understand what he meant. I still do not. This wine was a classic, perhaps a bit less evolved than the 1984, but it left an impression the way that an elephant’s butt does on a cupcake. Yet, compared to the ‘84, the style was different. Fruit was full, but much more earth and spice notes were at play. Delectable is what I wrote as I sipped the wine with the beef, and those spices with some white pepper characters kept coming. This is a great wine which I feel will be ready before the 1984.

1990 Lake: One of the largest production years for Lake, a bit over 100 cases. That noted, this was different from the two other Lake bottlings, much more evolved and harmonious, more elegant and silky. Notes of wood and spice were all across the nose and palate, and I cannot imagine this wine getting much better. As I drank it those terms such as silky and seductive kept coming back to me, and when I came home I did a number of web searches and this seems to be a catholic perception. It was a delightful way to end such a stellar evening.

Three Days Later: I began writing this the night of the tasting, though my early morning work regimen and most recent wife both were at odds with my efforts. I have reread all of this rather lovingly, and still feel what I felt prior to the gathering -this is America’s finest red wine. One in our group told me prior to the event that this was a wine that was not a favorite. I wonder if they feel the same way now. It was all here -age-ability, intensity, refinement, grace, impressive nuances, and style. The same can be said of Al and Boots. I still love her, and he is sadly missed. I hope to taste more with this SWAT cabal...rog

Foods, Wines, and Philosophy

Whenever I do a wine class, it seems I become struck with a dish that would well complement the tasted wines, and blurt out a recipe that no one can ever write fast enough. A person in the Wine Club forum section made this clear to me, and she is right. With such an inspiration, I have now included a recipe section here, and the wines I feel would best go with the dish. Not too different than about 150 billion other recipe offers, but I am planning on including the philosophy of the dish, and the wines suggested. Thomas Aquinas wrote “to know is good, but to understand is better.” Such an approach as I am taking will, I hope, help you target when the dish is good, what you can expect from it, and why the wine I suggest pairs so well.

While it all sounds somewhat haughty, basically it is my attempt to place the food and wine with the moment, and I will share my moments when I did the suggested dish. As well, if you have a fave, send it to me, and if it seems to fit, I will include it. This all revolves around my feeling that food and wines should fit appropriate times, and I will attempt to lay it all out for you.

Entrees

A Cold Sunday

What is most needed with this Mediterranean Pasta dish is a cold, and icy Sunday, when the wind knifes the windows, the dog gets icicles on its ears during the obligatory walk and the sky is as ominous as every first chapter of a Steven King book. You all have experienced them, usually from the third Sunday in November until the last weekend of May, if you live in Ohio.

With such a stage set, I get my work done at the stores and go to any grocery, and spend about $10, and this means I have one dinner and one lunch done for two people. The ingredients are as follows:

-8 sun dried tomatoes
-1 tbs. oil from the sun dried tomatoes
-2 crushed garlic cloves
-3 1/2 cups canned tomatoes
-2/3 cup black olives
-salt and fresh ground pepper
-1 lb. rigatoni
-1 onion, peeled and chopped
-fresh or dried basil/a tablespoon’s worth
-A few slivers of fresh Parmesan
-3/4 cup canned artichokes

1) Heat the water in preparation for boiling the ribbed rigatoni

2) Heat oil in saucepan, then add onion, cover and cook about ten minutes. Stir in garlic for another two minutes

-Drink some white wine

3) Add the canned tomatoes with all the juice, and break up with a spoon preferably a wooden one. Chop the sun-dried tomatoes and add them. Simmer for about ten to fifteen minutes. Then drain and slice the artichokes and add these and the olives to the sauce. Now is the time to salt and pepper to your taste.

-Drink some white wine

4) Cook the pasta “al dente”, drain, and add some salt. Throw in the sauce, add the basil, mix it together then top with the Parmesan.

It is done, pretty, and so awfully flavorful that the need for another glass of wine is present.

Thoughts: I have done this a number of times, and find that I like more of a sun-dried tomato character than the recipe offers. I have found that most non-Italians do not, so I must assume this is a genetic predisposition. As well, some folks do not like artichokes, but I think they are a food group and should be included. So, my personal taste does come into play with this dish, and I would suggest a one time run through to determine what you like.

Wine: One of the greatest misconceptions is that a red sauced pasta should be accompanied by a Tuscan red. This is a wrong as a dress on Shaquille O’Neil. The best wines for tomato pastas are southern and eastern Italian reds, as well as most California zinfandels. The choices are seemingly endless, but in the last few months I have found a wine called Conte Saladino from southern Italy that has the acidity to marry with red sauced dishes, a sweetness that graces the flavors and melds the impressions, and a price that allows you to invite her/his family and you will not feel used. But here again the philosophy of cooking arises. Do what you want, change what you do not like, and create your own Cold Sunday version of this can’t miss dish. Yet, from a cost standpoint, the whole thing, with wine, will be around $20...not including the white wine that helped you do what I call Mediterranean Pasta.

Mediterranean Tuna Pasta

This recipe is from a cook by the name of Lilsussie, and she is as southern as a pecan roll with sweet cream butter, yet the only thing thick about her is her accent. She offered this custom recipe after she created it while sunning herself down in Seaside, Florida. Her suggestion is a lunch venue, but as I read it I feel compelled to offer if this is lunch, make it a long one. It seems too decadent to just eat and return to sunning oneself. Her only caveat is one which I live by...drink wine as you do it and it will be even better. I might add that the sushi grade tuna should be edged with black sesame seeds marinated in soy sauce, garlic (of course), and a dry and crisp white wine, and allowed to sit the night. The ingredients are as follows:

one ounce soy sauce
4 ounces black sesame seeds
1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
1/2 chopped onions
teaspoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons capers
1/2 cup Kalamata olives
2 tsp. Herbes de Provence
1 pound sushi grade tuna, seared to taste and cut into cubes
salt and pepper to taste
1 pound pasta ( she offered “your choice” but I would pick farfalle (“bow ties”)

Season tuna with salt and pepper. Coat a nonstick pan cooking spray and a teaspoon of olive oil. Sear tuna to rare, and remove to a dish to rest. Begin cooking the pasta. Saute onion and garlic for 3 minutes, add tomatoes, herbs, and simmer for 10 minutes. Cut the tuna into smallish cubes. Add olives, capers, and tuna to the tomato sauce, season as needed for taste, and mix with the pasta. DEEE-lightful!

Wine Choices: Tuna is a wonderful wine for lighter red wines like pinot noir, or Montepulciano di Abruzzo. My choice here, although I am rather Italian, is the Camelot Pinot Noir from California. This sumptuous red has a load of dried cherry in the aromas, yet the fruit is never gloppy or baked. With the sesame character of the tuna, this wine is able to match such an assertive taste, but melds more than contrasts. This dish will serve two to three...which sounds like a couple of bottles of wine are needed.

Football Friday Night Pasta

This is from Lilsussie, and she must think she is Italian. What I really enjoyed about this recipe is the use of coffee with a pasta dish. I am an old man and have never heard of such a thing, but it truly adds a rustic taste to the dish that enhances all of the intermingled flavors. The wine choice for me with this is a big zin, perhaps the Peirano Old Vine Zinfandel from Lodi. The wine has a throaty smack of fruit that can stand up to this dish’s flavors, without trying to be the dinner’s star. That is what wine and food pairing is all about - balance and synergy. By the way, I found this to be a fast and easy meal when one would rather talk with friends than live in a kitchen.

-½ cup onion
-¼ cup crushed red pepper
-1 cup sliced mushrooms
-3 cloves of garlic (minimum), chopped
-8 oz. Prosciutto, chopped
-¼ cup strong coffee
-1 cup Bloody Mary mix
-½ cup red wine
-2 tsp. Herbes de Provence
-1 tbs. Butter
-cooking spray
-2 tsp. olive oil
-1# pasta (your choice)

-Boil the water for the pasta
-Spray a nonstick pan with cooking spray, and the olive oil. Gently sauté onion, garlic, and peppers for about five minutes, then add prosciutto and sauté another two minutes. De-glaze the pan with the red wine, add coffee, Bloody Mary mix, and herbs. Simmer for 10 minutes, add mushrooms, and cook another two minutes. Finish with butter, and toss with pasta.

Beef Wellington in Phyllo Dough
with a Mushroom Stuffing

Don came up with this entree, and it employs the use of a wine reduction sauce which seems to scare the bejeesus out of most kitchen putzers. To be sure, Donald is anything but that, for over the twenty years I have known him he has dazzled me with cooking ideas, and wine accompaniments. In fact, when most of my students and customers felt that Italian wines were all about straw bottles and Bolla Soave, Don scarfed up the great Barolos, and sultry Pinot Neros. So, when he told me this was his first wine reduction, I felt surely the recipe had to be included. Anther attractive character of this dish, is that it really does not take a long time, and will allow you to spend some time with your dining guests. As written, it will serve two. Here is what is needed:

2 -8oz. Filet Mignon
3/4 cup of red wine
1 cup beef stock
1/3 stick of butter (cut off a chip) then clarify the rest
4 sheets phyllo dough
4 oz. diced mushrooms
shallot or garlic (your choice here)
salt and pepper to taste
four ounces of bread crumbs

-Saute either the garlic or shallot in butter with the mushrooms, and set aside
-Salt and pepper beef to taste, then sear the filets on all sides in a pan with a little of the butter (set the pan aside with all the juices and bits of residual beef)
-Layout the phyllo dough on a flat surface (Make sure you have covered the dough prior so that it does not dry out). Add another sheet of the phyllo dough on top of the first, and brush with the butter.
-Place the meat over the breadcrumbs and top with the mushroom stuffing. Then place atop the phyllo dough and begin wrapping a “package” of meat by folding forward in a roll motion.
-Place the package on a baking sheet and brush lightly with butter. Put in over at 325 degrees and roast for eight to ten minutes.
-Heat the pan you seared the beef in, pour in beef stock, and with a wooden spoon scrape the pans bottom where the residual beef stuck. Reduce by 1/2, then pour in the wine and reduce again by 1/2. Finish the sauce by adding a chip of butter.

This dish is rich, substantial, and elegant, just the thing for the Penfolds Bin 128 Shiraz, which is a fruitful, juicy, and refined red meat oriented wine. In truth, while it does sell for around $23, it is the perfect wine to use on the reduction, because the wine’s fruit will play off the beef/mushroom flavors. A restaurant would charge $30 for this dish, but you will look like a certified chef if you try this with some good friends (only charge them $15!)

Catfish Encrusted in Sweet Potato

If I had not tried it, I would never have believed how good this mix of ingredients could be. Don raved about this dish so much that I had to do it, but the wine choice had me puzzled. This combination of hot sauce, raisins, and sweet potato does not lend top chardonnays, sauvignon blancs, or crisp Italian wines, so what to do. The answer was a wine called Albarino, found in the Galicia region of Spain, as well in California. The California efforts are pricier than the Spanish, and do not complement the dish as well. So, you can save some money, and have a real treat with this Donald creation.

2 Catish Fillets ( 6-8 oz.)
1 Large Sweet Potato
3 ½ tablespoons of butter, plus a bit extra for cooking
Olive Oil
Raisins
Pinenuts
Hot Sauce (to taste, but do not be aggressive if I am coming over)
½ cup white or rose wine

-Wash potato and pierce with fork. Roast the potato at 450 degrees and lightly coat skin with oil
-Marinade the pine nuts and raisins in olive oil with a dash of hot sauce
-After the potato is done, put in a mixing bowl with the raisins, pinenuts, and hot sauce and mix with a blender
-Cover the top of the fish with this mixture, melt butter in a hot frying pan, and place fish in with crusted side up. Cook until fish begins flaking, then remove, place on a baking sheet, and put into a hot broiler oven allowing the potato mixture to brown a bit.
-Meanwhile, heat the frying pan and de-glaze it with ½ cup of the white or pink wine, reducing the sauce by a half. Put the sauce on a plate, then place the catfish over the sauce
-Drink the Albarino and have some fun!

Sweet Things

Baklava Sundaes

Lori is our “Dessert Queen”, for whenever the Wine Bar has one of its Saturday Celebrations, it seems that Lori always brings these remarkable sweets to finish off the day. When I asked her about this, she offered her philosophy on the matter: “Life is uncertain. Desserts should come first.” So, our first dessert in the recipes rightly belongs to Lori, and it is as rich as every 25 year old woman who is married to every 70 year old man. While it looks involved, it really isn’t and what flavors...Here is what you will need:

6 sheets phyllo dough (buy the frozen)
vanilla Ice Cream
1/3 cup butter, melted
Honey Nut sauce (see following recipe)

-place Phyllo on a flat surface, and cover with a plastic wrap to avoid drying out
-remove a sheet, lightly brush with butter, then top with another sheet, and brush with butter and repeat until all have been layered and stacked
-With scissors, cut the stacked phyllos into four inch squares, then form phyllo cups by pressing the squares into the cups of a muffin pan with the phyllo corners extending above the edges of the cups.
-bake at 400 degrees for 5 to 8 minutes (golden brown)
-cool in pan on wine rack.

Honey Nut Sauce

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 cup chopped and toasted walnuts (put in shallow pan, and bake about 8 minutes at 300 degrees. Do not scorch!!)

-in medium saucepan, heat sugar and water over high heat until mixture comes to boil. Reduce heat and simmer five minutes
-remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients, then cool to room temperature

To serve, spoon ice cream into cups then top with the Honey Nut Sauce.

Ice Cream has few wine candidates, but one that comes to mind is the Antonio Barbadillo Moscatel from Spain. This sweet and fortified sherry has aromas of vanilla, caramel, and honey, which will grace this dish like no other I can think of. At only $9 a bottle, you will have a grand and cheap time with this mesmerizing dessert. If I might add, plan an extra hour’s walk the next day. You will need it!

Chocolate Soufflé with Kahlua Sauce

Our Dessert Diva, Miss Lori, has done it again with this totally decadent recipe that makes one put weight on just reading it. She claims it is her best dessert, and given what I have tried from her kitchen in the past, that is quite a statement. The wine choice here, to my thinking, should be a “PX” Sherry, or Pedro Ximinez Sherry. This fortified wine has a caramel chocolate aromas that smacks a bit of sweet coffee with molasses added. Sound good? It is. Try the effort from Emilio Lustau, but I would suggest one run to the store, literally!!

Soufflé

4 oz. Semisweet chocolate
1/3 cup heavy cream
3 eggs
2 tablespoons brandy
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 egg whites
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2-3 tablespoons confectioners sugar
Butter

-Butter dish well, all the way to the top of a soufflé pan‘s collar. Lightly sprinkle inside of dish with sugar, including the collar. Heat oven to 425 degrees
-Melt chocolate in microwave, then put in saucepan and add cream. Heat gently! Stir until smooth and simmer to consistency of heavy cream. Remove from heat
-Separate eggs and whisk the yolks into hot mix one at a time. Heat over low heat for 4 minutes, remove from heat, and whisk in brandy and vanilla
-Whisk five egg whites until stiff, then sprinkle in sugar until glossy. Cut and fold chocolate and meringue together
-Pour into disk, bake until puffed (about 15 to 18 minutes) Avoid jumping on floor. Not it is on to the sauce…

Kahlua Sauce

1/3 cup butter
1 cup sifted confectioners sugar
3 tablespoons Kahlua
2 egg yolks
½ cup cream
Water

-Heat butter in double broiler, over (but not in) hot water. Add sugar gradually and beat until creamy. Beat in Kahlua slowly, then beat in egg yolks one at a time. Add cream and cook until slightly thickened. Top the soufflé with the sauce, and get ready for a jolt of sweetness that will sate any sweet tooth.