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Thanksgiving Wine Selections: A Spiritual Prelude for Wine Lovers

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I am a self-confessed wino. I know a thing or two about wine and have mostly been sticking to budget French and Italian wines, with a penchant for reds.

But I dabble. I am not one who is an expert for food and wine paring. Well, I might know a few basics, but generally I stick to a pretty basic formula – If I can afford it and I like it – I drink it. Repeat.

However, today I have enlisted the help of someone who does know all about wine.

He makes it his business to know.

One of my very favorite Italian wine guys, Joel Mack from Vintrospective (don’t you just love the name!), stopped by today to chat about Italian wine and how it relates to Thanksgiving.

Don’t forget to take good notes!

Here’s Joel:
In preparation for making your holiday wine selections, I suggest the following spiritual prelude: let’s imagine you as wine.

As wine, you’ve got options, of course. Pedigree. Great structure. Complexity of aroma. But to be a wine appreciated, it’s not necessary to imagine all that. Better you should know how to roll up your sleeves and do good work at table. The table is the great equalizer among wines: be great there, or be a lie, an imitation.

Maybe you’re turned out in an elegant, black 750ml bottle; or perhaps headlining in a more formal 1.5 litre magnum, center stage, the only wine on the table. And they’ll be clutching their stomachs with hunger, waiting to eat and drink. The pressure is on. Hopefully, you won’t be counting on just your pedigree to carry you through.

Want to know what you’re up against? Take my family, Italian-Americans – at Thanksgiving, they’ll hit you with everything they’ve got – it’ll be escarole soup, meatballs, pork, and two kinds of handmade pasta all before the turkey and trimmings ever hit the table. You can’t take just one position, you’ve got to work it all.

Express yourself. You’re a star. But play it like a supporting role: make the food taste good. You’ll hear the “oohs” and “ahhhs”. “Bravo”, they’ll say. They’ll lift you up, want to hold you, feel the bottle, get a better look at your label.

You’ll be back next year

OK: End of spiritual prelude.

No pretending about Italy’s great food wines: a few recommendations that make great sense for most Thanksgiving tables, wines whose incredibly food-friendly attitudes at table make them super choices for the entire meal:

Chianti Classico
This classic from Tuscany, based on the Sangiovese varietal, pairs well with intensely flavored dishes, entrees with cheese and is particularly good with grilled or roasted meats, poultry, and game.

Recommended Producers Include: Castellare, Felsina, Fontodi

Valpolicella
Based primarily on the grape called Corvina, this wine from Italy’s Veneto region shows a real ability to work equally well with milder pasta dishes as well as roasted poultry.

Recommended Producers Include: Brigaldara, Le Salette, Zenato

Dolcetto
One of Piedmont’s important wines, Dolcetto is made from the grape of the same name and does especially well with pasta dishes containing meat and is excellent with rich poultry dishes.

Recommended Producers Include: Abbona, Icardi, San Fereolo
ABOUT JOEL MACK

Joel Mack writes about Italian wine atVintrospective -> An Italian Wine Blog, a site that encourages an understanding of Italian wine as a part of culture, exploring wine’s connection to the people, land and traditions which create it. As a free lance writer, he also contributes content to other Internet and print interests. Joel conducts specialized seminar tastings featuring the wines of Italy for private and corporate clients and teaches a college level Discover Italy series of wine classes. He has a worked for a celebrated importer / distributor of Italian wines and continues to study the wines of Italy.

Roasted Red Pepper Risotto from Bell’Alimento

Take one look at that mouth-watering photo, or as I like to refer to it : Food Porn- and you can tell we are dealing with a professional here folks.

I met Paula on Twitter, and eveytime I saw one of her recipes (and delicious photos) I knew she was the real deal.  I knew that whatever contribution she made as a guest blogger here, would be simple, delicious, and of course, Italian.  And I knew that my readers would just gobble her up!

So today, I am very excited to welcome, Paula and her contribution, Roasted Red Pepper Risotto.

Here's Paula…

I am so honored to have been asked by Robin to do a guest post on MyMelange. I met Robin on Twitter earlier this year and have loved her blog and, of course, her, ever since. She is one of the funniest tweeps out there. 

We have many things in common but the biggest of them is ITALY! We both are crazy for L'Italia. Oops, how rude of me, I'm so sorry I didn't introduce myself, silly me, I'm Paula and I am a food writer & recipe developer for bellalimento.com 

 

Bell'Alimento is Italian for “beautiful food.” My food philosophy is simple…beautiful food doesn't have to be complicated. But just because it's not complicated doesn't mean it has to bland or boring. Oh no! At least not on bell'alimento.

 

I am so happy to stop by with a recipe to share with you. Naturally it had to be Italian! No brainer there & with Fall upon us I thought a good Risotto recipe would be perfetto.

I am unashamedly a Risotto Lover. I have many Risotto recipes on my site and know there will be many more to come. Once you have the basic recipe down the varities of Risotto are endless. If you haven't made Risotto, fear not. It's not as complicated as you would imagine or might have heard. Yes, you will have to mind the pot while it's cooking & stir fairly often but the payoff will more than make up for it.

 

A few things to remember: If you'd like to use a fresh red bell pepper instead that's fine. Be sure to clean it & chop it into bite size pieces. You'll need to put it into the mixture a little earlier on in the cooking process. At about 15 minutes in would be fine.

Keep your heat low & slow. When the liquid levels get low, add more stock (even if it's more than what's recommended). When the rice is done, taste and season with salt level to your taste buds. If you're as crazy about Risotto as I am, you can easily double the recipe!

 

Buon Appetito!

 

 

What you'll need:

1 cup of Arborio rice

2 cans of chicken broth

1 small onion – minced

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 jar of roasted red bell peppers – chopped into bite size pieces

salt

What to do:

Pour olive oil into sauce pan & heat over medium heat. When oil is hot, add onions, stir & saute until slightly translucent. Once onions are translucent, add rice & mix thoroughly until rice is coated well with onion & oil mixture. 

Stir constantly so as not to burn your rice or onions. When rice is sufficiently coated add in about 1/4 can of chicken broth. Stir constantly! It is very important to not leave this unattended. Once chicken broth has reduced add more broth. Continue this process until both cans of your broth have been added. This process will take about 30 minutes. 

At about 20 minutes into the cooking process add in your chopped roasted red bell peppers. Once your rice is creamy and soft to the taste it is ready! Take off of heat & add butter, stir, taste & add salt if necessary. Serve immediately.

Buon Appetito!

 

Italian Recipes to Wow Your Friends With

My good twitter buddy Julie Gilley and I have more than a few things in common.  We are both passionate about travel, we love Italy and we love Italian food!  We got to twittering about Italian Food a few weeks back and she mentioned that she had a delicious no-fail night of Italian recipes for entertaining- from soup to nuts.

I suggested she come on and let us know about it!

So, heeeeeeeeere's Julie:

One of the many things I love about Italian food is its rustic simplicity and goodness.  Many recipes can be made the day before, making them ideal for dinner parties.  The next time you want to dazzle your friends with a scrumptious meal, try these deceptively easy dishes:

Antipasti: Bruschette con Cannellini e Olio Nuovo 

(Bruschetta with White Beans and Olive Oil)

Mix beans, olive oil, garlic, sage, salt and pepper.  Warm the beans over low heat.  Toast bread slices on a baking sheet in 375°F oven until golden brown.  Ladle a generous amount of beans and a bit of the juice on each toast and serve.

(Spaghetti with Tomatoes, Pancetta, and Chili)

• ¼ lb pancetta, chopped
  
• 2 tbsp olive oil
  
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
  
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  
• Pinch of dried pepper flakes
  
• 2 cans chopped Roma tomatoes
  
• salt to taste
  
• 1 lb bucatini or spaghetti
  
• 1/3 c grated pecorino romano cheese
  

In a large saucepan, cook pancetta over medium heat in olive oil until golden brown.  Add onion, sauté until tender.  Add garlic and chili.  Add tomatoes and salt.  Bring to a simmer and cook until sauce thickens—about 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, boil pasta until al dente.  Drain pasta, reserving a ladleful of cooking water.  Pour pasta into the saucepan.  Stir and toss well.  Add cooking water as needed if pasta seems dry.  Sprinkle with the cheese and toss again.  Serve immediately.

• 1 rabbit cut into 8 serving pieces **
  
• 6 tbsp olive oil
  
• 2 of each: onion, celery stalks, carrots, garlic cloves—all chopped
  
• 1 tsp each: rosemary, sage, Italian parsley—all finely chopped
  
• 2 bay leaves
  
• 1 c dry white wine
  
• 1 c pine nuts
  
• ¾ c brine-cured pitted black olives
  
• Salt and Pepper to taste 

  

  
** If the idea of eating rabbit makes you squeamish, substitute it with dark meat chicken (thighs and legs).

Julie Gilley
Travel Guide and Planner

Guest Blogger- Julie from WhyGo France

I have not been feeding my Francophile soul as much, probably because I have Italy on the brain- planning our upcoming trip and all.

But don't worry it's still there.  C'est vrai.  And today, we have someone guest posting that shares my passion for my France.  Julie writes the blog WhyGo France, and I asked her to stop by and write about her love of the country and to tell us how she fell for it.

So, let's give a warm welcome to…..Julie!

I fell in love with France much the way you fall in love with an enchanted forest in a childhood fairy tale. My grandmother is French and despite the fact she moved to this country after World War II nearly 60 years ago, to this day she speaks with a rather heavy accent and is still much more a French lady than an American one. Growing up, my Grandmere would feed us French food, speak in French occasionally and tell us lots of stories that started “Well, in France we….” Long before my family made our first trip to the other side of the Atlantic, I’d already imagined the seemingly magical place that we’d heard so many stories about.  

You’d think with so much build-up and hype, I would have been disappointed with France when I got there. This did not happen. Although France was not the idealized version of 1930s Paris in a chic 17eme arrondissement penthouse apartment, which my Grandmere described, it was nonetheless a completely enticing and enchanting place to me. As I got older and my French got better (I studied the language starting in 5^th grade and majored in it college), I promised myself I would return to this country where the baguettes were always crispy and you could truly experience the French joie de vivre. 

When I was 16, I participated in a Rotary Exchange, which assigned me to live with a family in France for the summer—ideally with a French girl in the house about my age. I got paired with a fabulous family who lived outside of Annecy in a little town called Menton, right on the beautiful Lac d’Annecy in the Alps. The girl, la petite Marion, was one year younger than me and we became fast friends and remain in contact. 

That summer, I did a one week trek through the French Alps; floated on a boat on the Seine and went wine tasting in the Loire Valley (yes, I was 16 and yes it was legal, see why I fell in love with France…); went swimming in the lake, and pretty much had the best summer of my life—all while totally improving my French conversation skills. 

That was when I truly fell in love with France. It was during that summer in the mountains that made me promise myself to go back for an extended period of time. That promise led to my year in Paris studying at the Sorbonne. When I left Paris after that time (you can not even imagine how emotional that was), I vowed to return for an extended period of time once again. This has not happened yet. In fact, finishing college and getting a job has interfered with me making it back to France since I left—leaving a little hole in my heart I know won’t be filled until I am once again back to my pastry-a-day habit in my kind of homeland (and lots of walking those metro stairs to make up for pastry consumption and trying to stay looking as fly as those damn thin and stylish French ladies). 

Guest Blogger- Jessica from Why Go Italy

Jessica, who is a dear blogger friend, fellow Italophile and the author of the WhyGo Italy travel site, shares my passion for Italy. And for travel.  So naturally, she is a perfect fit for a guest post on My Melange.