I just returned from the Aspen Food & Wine Classic, a five day food and wine extravaganza where we proudly poured Hanna wines to thousands of trade, media and consumers. One of the highlights of the trip was a dinner at Matsuhisa, the Aspen outpost of famed Nobu in New York, one of the best restaurants in the country. Our Hanna Russian River Valley Chardonnay features on their excellent wine list. As an added bonus, we were joined by Top Chef contestant Fabio Vivianni. When you dine with a chef, it’s best to buckle your seat belt and enjoy the ride! 15 courses later, most not even on the menu, we all deemed it one of the top culinary experiences of our lives! Oddly enough, the dish everyone wanted to figure out how to make at home was, wait for it, a SALAD! Yes, Matsuhisa sent us over a spinach salad with crispy miso, truffle oil, yuzu and parmesan. To die for! There was something magical about the alchemy of salty miso, earthy truffle, nutty parmesan, and tangy yuzu vinaigrette. And it worked beautifully with our Chardonnay. So, here is Fabio and my deconstruction of the recipe. If you can’t find yuzu vinegar, you can substitute lemon juice cut with a little rice wine vinegar.

Miso paste

Yuzu Vinegar

Truffle Oil

Salt and pepper

4 cups fresh baby spinach

Parmesan

Smear a thin layer of miso paste onto tin foil and place on a cookie sheet. Bake in a 225 degree oven until miso paste is dried out. Let cool. Crumble.

Whisk yuzu, truffle oil, salt and pepper together in a small bowl.

Toss spinach with vinaigrette. Shave parmesan over salad, then add miso crumbles. Enjoy!

Serves 4-6

Article by Christine Hanna

Christine Hanna — award-winning winemaker, mother, and consummate hostess — epitomizes the region’s laid-back approach to wine and food. Hanna shares her wine expertise and entertaining savvy in her upcoming book The Winemaker Cooks, with 100 recipes, and 75 color photographs capture her tabletops overflowing with local ingredients and products.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 20th, 2011 at 9:35 am and is filed under Where's Chris. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.