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

Finally some sunshine! After some very unusual early June rain, the sun decided to join us in earnest. With the warmer weather, cool salads seem like just the thing to make, though they’re generally tough to pair with wines. This Moroccan salad is a more wine friendly riff on the classic Middle Eastern Tabouli, and it actually works with Chardonnay. I’ve subtituted milder oranges for the usual lemon, switched out raw onion for gentle chives, and made a dressing with ras el hanout, a Moroccan spice blend that builds a bridge to the oak in the Chardonnay. Creamy feta and toasted almonds add broad mouthfeel and match the Chardonnay’s creamy mouthfeel and toasty oak.

I demoed and served this salad for over 100 people on Monday, and it’s a great dish for a party. The recipe below serves 12-15 but can easily be halved for a smaller group. If you can’t find pomegranate molasses, you can reduce some pomegranate juice by half and add a squirt of lemon juice. Enjoy!

Summer Moroccan Salad

For the salad:

2 cups Bulgur (cracked wheat)

1 cucumber, peeled and cut into small dice

4 ounces feta, crumbled

I cup chopped oil cured olives

½ cup toasted sliced almonds

½ cup chopped parsley

2 tablespoons chopped mint

2 tablespoons chopped chives

1 orange, peel zested and flesh segmented and chopped

For the ras al hanout:

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon Aleppo pepper, or ¼ tsp cayenne and ¼ tsp paprika

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground coriander

½ teaspoon allspice

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

For the vinaigrette:

½ cup olive oil

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon ras al hanout

Salt and pepper to taste

Soak bulgur in 6 cups of cold water for two hours or until al dente. Squeeze out any excess moisture.

Whisk together spices for ras al hanout. Reserve 1 teaspoon for vinaigrette. Store the remainder in an airtight container. It will keep for at least one month.

Whisk together ingredients for vinaigrette. Set aside.

Combine bulgur, cucumber, feta, olives, almonds, herbs and orange zest and flesh. Add vinaigrette and toss to combine. Taste for seasoning and add more salt if needed.

Serves 12-15.

Spring has finally sprung in wine country! After a very cool and rainy start to the growing season, we’re finally getting a little springtime heat. Our grapevines have leafed out nicely, and the garden is teeming with herbs, strawberries, favas and fresh peas! The trick for us is having the peas actually make it into the kitchen. We tend to pick, shell and eat them right in the garden, their sweet taste and crunch addictive. If the fresh peas manage to come inside the kitchen, I love to make this chilled spring soup. Its bright, beautiful green color is the essence of springtime. Don’t worry if you don’t have fresh peas. Frozen petite peas work fine, too. Serve the soup in white teacups for an elegant dinner party starter. It pairs wonderfully with our Hanna 2009 Russian River Valley Chardonnay, with its flavors of citrus and cream. Enjoy!
 

Chilled Spring Pea Soup with Crème Fraiche, Chives and Mint
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 medium shallots, chopped fine
1 small Yukon gold potato, peeled and cut into ½ inch pieces
3 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1 pound fresh or frozen baby peas
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup crème fraiche, thinned with a little water
Chopped chives and fresh mint for garnish
Heat oil in a medium sized heavy saucepan over medium heat, until shimmering. Add shallots and sauté until translucent. Add chopped potato and stir for several minutes. Add stock and simmer, covered, until potato is tender, about 10 minutes. Remove lid and add peas. Simmer for several minutes, until fresh peas are cooked through. Frozen peas will cook in less time.

Purée soup in batches in a blender or food processor. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place soup in the refrigerator until chilled through. Serve soup in chilled teacups, with a drizzle of crème fraiche and a garnish of chives and mint.

Serves 6

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.

"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.