Easy Spring Dinner with Pommes Gratin and Chinon – French #Winophiles
French Winophiles Take Touraine by Storm Continuing our virtual cruise up the Loire river, we’re picturing those fairytale castles as well as all the vineyards we’d like to visit. Moving inland, the main wine grapes remain Chenin Blanc for white and Cabernet Franc for red. However, we also start to see Sauvignon Blanc coming into … Continue reading
Taste Test: Wines for Spicy Food #WinePW
Wine Pairing Weekend Group Tackles Enchiladas Our Wine Pairing Weekend group is nothing if not brave. As we have gotten comfortable with our wine pairing explorations, we have started taking on tougher challenges and this month is one of our better ones: enchiladas. With wine as a daily occurrence at our dinner table, I have … Continue reading
Hazelnut Pork Tenderloin and Valtellina Superiore
Stuck in Valtellina Continuing on with our virtual exploration of Valtellina, I found a good looking recipe for chestnut coated pork tenderloin. In my quick tour around my usual local shops, I was unable to find chestnut flour, but hazelnut flour was available, hazelnut it is! We’ll pair the pork with a very nice introduction … Continue reading
Morels: Minnesota’s Version of Truffle Season
Morel Season Our counterparts in the old world have truffles. Perigord truffles, black truffles, and the prized white truffles from the area near Alba in Italy. In Minnesota, we have our Morel Season in the spring. Morel mushrooms grow only in the wild, and only appear for a short time in late April or early … Continue reading
Valtellina: Another Expression of Nebbiolo #ItalianFWT
#ItalianFWT Visits Lombardia, FoodWineClick Digs into Valtellina The month of May brings our Italian Food, Wine & Travel (#ItalianFWT on twitter) group to Lombardy (Lombardia). Located in north central Italy, Lombardy is the home of much of Italian industry (Beretta), fashion (Milan!), and also for its beautiful lakes region including the well known Lakes Maggiore, … Continue reading
Seafood Brochettes with the Wines of Anjou & Saumur – French #Winophiles
French #Winophiles Cruise the Loire, Part 2 In our four session virtual cruise up the Loire river, we have left the Pays Nantais and the coast behind and have entered the Anjou-Saumur region. The Melon de Bourgogne grape is gone. Now we have Chenin Blanc grapes for white wines, and Cabernet Franc for reds. Anjou … Continue reading
Giving Salice Salentino a Chance
Salice Salentino Gets No Respect Do a little research on Salice Salentino, and the nicest comment you’ll hear is: “At least it’s inexpensive”. Dig a little deeper, and you might hear “ripe and bitter.” Wow, faint praise indeed. As our #ItalianFWT group was exploring Puglia, I approached the bottle of Salice Salentino I bought with … Continue reading
Primitivo and Pasta from the Heel of the Boot #ItalianFWT
Italian Food, Wine & Travel Explores Puglia This month, we’re traveling (virtually of course) to Puglia, in the far south of Italy. Puglia is the high-heel of the ever fashionable boot that is Italy. If you look carefully, you can tell a lot from the photo above. While much of Italy is marked by the … Continue reading
Mustard Braised Short Ribs and Demarie Barolo
Barolo: Drama in a Glass Barolo always impresses. All that power, all the acid and tannins from such a lightly colored wine. It doesn’t feel heavy, but it’s no lightweight patio sipper! Azienda Agricola Demarie Giovanni The Demarie winery is located in Vezza d’Alba, a town in the Roero region of the Piemonte in northwest … Continue reading
Cooking Sicilian with the Broders at Kitchen in the Market
Two Favorites: Kitchen in the Market and Broders I love cooking classes at Kitchen in the Market in Minneapolis. A real commercial kitchen, the classes are always fully hands-on. I don’t want to watch someone cook, I want to do it myself! This week, I had the double pleasure of attending a Sicilian cooking class … Continue reading
foodwineclick 