It’s cold and rainy this week, and I wanted something warm, delicious and different for a quick weeknight dinner. Mussels to the rescue! They cook  very quickly in an aromatic broth of fennel, saffron and white wine, and they’re fun to eat. Set out a bowl for shells, plenty of napkins, and go to town. Serve with crusty bread to soak up the juices, toss a salad and pour yourself a glass of Hanna Russian River Valley Chardonnay. Dinner is done!

Mussels in Fennel and Saffron Broth

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 shallots, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup finely chopped fennel

1/2 cup white wine

2 plum tomatoes, finely chopped

1/2 cup fish stock

generous pinch of saffron threads

2 pounds mussels, cleaned

Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven big enough to hold all the mussels. Add shallots, garlic and fennel and saute for a few minutes, until shallots are translucent. Add wine, tomato, and fish stock and stir. Let simmer for five minutes, then add saffron and stir. Add mussels and cover pot to cook over low heat for five minutes, or until mussels are open. To serve, ladle mussels and broth into shallow bowls and serve with crusty bread.

Serves 4.

I hosted a bridal shower for the daughter of a dear friend this weekend. It was a beautiful warm summer day in wine country, so I took advantage of the ripe tomatoes in my garden and made this lovely savory tart. The crust is a basic pate brisee, and the filling is goat cheese mixed with lemon thyme, and then topped with pretty slices of heirloom tomatoes. The tart can be made ahead and served at room temperature, so you can enjoy your guests and a glass of wine instead of hassling with any last minute kitchen drama. You can make the tart in a rectangular tart pan and cut small squares as an appetizer, or make it in a traditional round tart pan and serve slices as a main course. The buttery crust and tangy filling of the tart worked beautifully with our citrusy, lush Chardonnay. Enjoy!

Summer Tomato and Chevre Tart

For the pastry:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into chunks
2-3 tablespoons ice water

For the filling:
12 ounces chevre (goat cheese)
1 tablespoon chopped lemon thyme
3 or 4 large heirloom tomatoes, sliced thinly crosswise
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour and salt until combined. Add butter chunks and pulse until mixture resembles coarse sand. Add ice water and pulse until the mixture just begins to come together. It will not form into a ball, so do not overmix. Turn the mixture out onto a floured surface and form pastry into a flat disk. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and allow to rest in the refrigerator for half an hour or up to 2 days.

When you’re ready to bake the tart, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll the tart dough out into a 12 inch circle. Fit crust into a 10 inch tart pan and push the dough up the sides, trimming the top flush with the rim.

With a fork, mix goat cheese and thyme together with salt and pepper to taste. Spread over the tart dough. (If your chevre mixture is very dry, you can moisten it a bit with cream or milk. Don’t worry if small areas of the dough are uncovered.) Top chevre mixture with overlapping tomato slices, starting at the outside edge and working in. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and more thyme, and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 40 minutes or until crust becomes golden. Let cool and cut. Serves 16 as an appetizer or 8 as a main course.

Despite the relatively cool weather here in Sonoma County, summer means salad to me, and my favorites are salads that work as a meal. No one wants to spend hours at the stove on a beautiful August day, so salads are a great way to entertain. Just prep the ingredients ahead of time, and then add the dressing and toss right before you’re ready to serve guests. Add a cold glass of summertime wine, and you’ve got an instant party!

My sister came to visit the other day with her two sweet daughters, and we sat down for lunch poolside to a Shrimp and Soba Noodle Salad, with a ginger and sesame dressing. Even the two year old asked for seconds! For the grownups, the tanginess of the salad’s dressing,  works perfectly with our crisp, citrusy Sauvignon Blanc. And the earthiness of the soba noodles and plump prawsns make the salad feel hearty enough for a main course.

The only trick to this salad is to not overcook the shrimp. If you can’t find soba noodles, then any kind of Asian noodle will do.

I hope you thoroughly enjoy the last weeks of summer!

Shrimp and Soba Noodle Salad

1 pound Tiger prawns, peeled, deveined and tails removed

6 ounces Soba noodles

1 yellow pepper, seeded and sliced lengthwise into matchsticks

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

2 green onions, chopped fine

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

Juice of one lime

1 two inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated very fine

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon sesame oil

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Salt and pepper

Bring an inch of water to simmer in a large saute pan. Place prawns in water and let simmer for a minute, then flip and let simmer for another minute. Drain water. Prawns will continue to cook as they cool.

Cook soba noodles in plenty of salted water until just al dente. Drain cooking water and run noodles under cold water. Drain and place noodles in a large bowl. Add the prawns, pepper, cilantro, and green onion.

Whisk vinegar, lime juice, ginger and garlic together. Add oils in a slow stream and whisk to emulsify. Season with salt and pepper.

Just before you’re ready to serve, toss salad with dressing and adjust seasoning as needed.

Serves four.

Yesterday, my children and I ambled down our rural road to pick the wild, ripe blackberries that mark mid summer here in wine country. We returned home with stained fingers, burrs in our shirts, and thorn scratches on our legs and arms, but with plenty of dark, juicy berries. It was too hot to turn on the oven, so we decided to make homemade blackberry ice cream! I love the combination of fresh fruit and herbs, so I steeped a little fresh thyme in the custard to add complexity.

Once you get the hang of making the ice cream custard base, then it’s easy to add whatever flavoring you like, depending on what’s in season. You’ll need to chill the custard overnight, then freeze it the next day for ice cream nirvana.

Serve our Blackberry Thyme Ice Cream with shortbread cookies and a chilled glass of Hanna Bismark Mountain Zinfandel, and you’ve got a dinner party dessert. Our Bismark Zin is brambly, fruit forward and spicy, and even though it’s dry, makes a surprisingly delicious dessert wine because of its bold berry flavors. Enjoy your summer!

Blackberry Thyme Ice Cream

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

3 sprigs of fresh thyme

4 egg yolks

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups fresh blackberries, with 1/2 cup reserved

2 tablespoons sugar

Place milk and cream in a medium saucepan over low heat until bubbles form around the edges. Do not let simmer. Remove from heat and add thyme sprigs. Let steep for 30 minutes and remove thyme.

Beat egg yolks, sugar and salt in an electric mixer until doubled in volume. Add one cup of milk mixture to temper, then add another cup, then the remainder. Mix to combine, then return the liquid to the saucepan. Cook over low heat until the custard is  thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about five minutes.

Puree blackberries in a food processor or blender, then strain to remove seeds. Add sugar to taste.

Add blackberry puree to the custard and refrigerate overnight. Freeze in an ice cream maker, and add reserved blackberries five minutes or so before the ice cream is completely frozen.

Makes 1 1/2 pints

"The Winemaker Cooks" by Christine Hanna

After a sodden spring, the first weekend in June finally brought relentless, welcome sunshine. Our grapevines grew inches overnight, the hydrangeas went bonanza, all my spring garden greens looked like they were ready to bolt, and the change of season was upon us. If we could brave the mosquitoes, it was high time to dine outside.

We invited my husband’s distant cousin and his family over for dinner. Cousin Glenn was born in the north of England, went to university in Japan where he met his willowy and shockingly tall Japanese wife, and was newly stationed in San Francisco at the French consulate. They have a beautiful toddler son to whom they speak French and Japanese, so it was a multicultural evening indeed.

Pizza is the ultimate cross cultural bridge, and homemade pizza fired on the grill provides some hands on entertainment when language fails us. So, we made pizzas together, and talked about France and Japan, parks and Japanese mommy groups (who knew?) in San Francisco. And of course wine, proving once again that wine is the grownup glue that holds us all happily together.
I’ll show you how to make your own pizza dough here, and I encourage you to seek out some 00 flour from Italy. If you can’t find it, don’t worry, all purpose flour will be just fine. But the 00 flour allows you to roll that pizza dough out extra thin, and the crust results in that perfect nirvana of crunchy and chewy. We paired our pizza with our newly released Hanna 2006 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, with its up front fruit and velvety tannins. We pronounced it all delicious in every language.

Prosciutto, Arugula and Fresh Mozzarella Pizza

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
One 12-in round Pizza Dough (recipe follows)
6 paper thin slices of prosciutto
4 oz sliced fresh mozzarella
2 cups arugula

Preheat a gas grill/barbecue to the highest temperature possible, or prepare a hot fire in a charcoal grill/barbecue. Place dough round on a floured pizza peel.

In a small bowl, combine the extra virgin olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Brush the garlic oil liberally over the entire dough round. Scatter the cheese slices evenly over the dough. Place the prosciutto slices evenly over the dough and then scatter arugula evenly over the dough.

Place the dough directly on the grill, cover, and cook until the crust is browned and the cheese is bubbling, about 5 minutes.

Serves 4 as an appetizer, 2 as a main course.

Pizza Dough
Makes four 12-in rounds

1/2 cup plus 3/4 cup warm (105° to 115°F) water
1 package (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 cups 00 flour or all-purpose flour
1 tbsp salt

Measure the 1/2 cup/120 ml warm water into a 2-cup/480-ml glass measure. Sprinkle the yeast over, stir to dissolve, and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add the 3/4 cup/180 ml warm water and the oil.
Combine the flour and salt in a food processor. With the machine running, add the yeast mixture and process for several minutes until the dough forms a sticky ball.

Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and knead several times until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place in a large, well-oiled bowl and turn to coat the dough completely with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 2 hours, or until doubled. If not using the dough immediately, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 4 pieces. Roll and press into as many 12-in/30.5-cm rounds needed.