Wine: 2010 Eric Ross Pinot Noir Saralee Vineyard

Here is a quick fabulous pasta dish to go with a 2010 Eric Ross Pinot. Serve with a California green salad and Vinegar dressing and your guests will not want to leave the table.

Ingredients:

(Serves 4)

12 oz/350 g dried fusilli

3 tbsp olive oil

12 oz/350 g exotic mushroom, sliced

1 garlic clove 14fl oz/400g m/ 1 ¾ cups heavy cream

9oz/250 g gorgonzola

Salt and pepper to taste

2tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley to garnish

Directions:

Bring a large pan of lightly salted water to boil. Add the Pasta, bring back to boil and cook for 8-10 minutes until tender but still firm to the bite.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottom pan. Add the mushrooms and cookover low heat, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for an additional2 minutes.

Add the heavy cream, bring to a slow boil and cook for 1 minute, until slightly thickened.

Stir in the cheese and cook over low heat until it has melted. Do not let the sauce boil once

The cheese has been added. Season to taste with salt and pepper; remove the pan from the heat.

Drain the pasta and pour it into the sauce. Toss well to coat, then serve immediately, garnish with the parsley.

Serve with Eric Ross Pinot Noir.

The complex tasting notes of this wine delivers a gentle roller coaster of spice aromas of black cheery, coffee and ripe Santa Rosa Plums that go magically with the creamy cheese and mushroom flavors of this meal. This is a classic, dress up and serve in February as a prelude to the Valentines Day Dinner you know is coming your way.

Tod Hill – Locals Wine Club member….and friend

Climate change be damned, there is nothing like a drought-on-the-horizon mid December day in Sonoma County. Yesterday I awoke to brilliant sunshine, frost on my roof and all three dogs under the covers. By mid day, I was sweating in the garden pulling beets, clipping kale, picking the last of the serrano peppers, and wondering if I needed sun block. By sunset, I was lighting a fire and contemplating a stew for dinner. No time for slow-braised short ribs or coq au vin. A sea food stew would have to do. I remembered a fish stew served in a whole pumpkin that I had at a hole-in-the-wall Brazilian restaurant on Valencia & 24th back in the 80s. A tropical stew for a cold winter’s night that came hours after a what felt like a warm summer day. Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

The pumpkins

Slice the tops off of two sugar pie pumpkins (the small ones about the size of a softball or grapefruit)
Scoop out the seeds
Bake at 350 for one hour; then turn off the oven and allow the pumpkins to sit in the oven for up to an hour more

The stew

Dice, separately:
2 red, ripe Serrano peppers
1 shallot
1/2 of a fennel bulb (about 1/2 cup)
1 leek
1 large carrots
1/2 lb Crimini or white mushrooms

Directions:

Heat a small amount of olive oil in a heavy bottomed pot
Add the pepper, shallot, and fennel and saute for about 3-4 min until soft
Add the leek and carrots and saute for about 3-4 min until soft
Add the crimini mushrooms and 1 cup dry white wine, cover and let cook until the mushrooms have released their juices
Chop into 1/2 inch cubes: approximately 8 oz. snapper or other flaky white fish
Add the fish along with 1 cup water, cook until the fish dissolves
In the mean time, rinse and mix together 1/2 lb selections of other seafood (I used bay scallops, tiger prawns and calamari). Squeeze the juice of one lime over the fish along with 1/2 cup white wine, salt & pepper, 1/2 cup chopped italian parsley and 1 one diced Serrano pepper. Let sit while the snapper dissolves.
10 min before serving, add the fish to the stew, bring to a simmer, lower the heat and let it simmer for 10 min
Place the pumpkins into plates or soup bowls, ladle the stew into the pumpkins, sprinkle with chopped cilantro and enjoy.

So what wine should we pair with this creation? A Praxis Viognier to capture the tropical mood? A Saracina Sauvignon Blanc to meet the citrus notes? Nope, I chose the Eric Ross 2009 Pinot Noir. Red wine with fish? A Pinot with spicy sea food? No problem. The fennel and mushroom based stock met the earthy tones of the Pinot perfectly. And the fruitier notes mingled with the sweetness of the pumpkin and the shellfish provided a perfect counterpoint to the spice of the Serranos. Fish and white wine pairing orthodoxy be damned.