Food, Wine & Friends Page 159
CELEBRATING THE RAIN
in a DROUGHT
Sunday with Lucy & Jonathan and Friends
February 2009
Jonathan and Lucy mapped out the itinerary for a leisurely
Sunday afternoon of vittles and vino.
They'd forwarded to me an article from the New York Times regarding a small
prosciutto producer in the state of Iowa. I purchased, then, some of the
prosciutto from La Quercia.
I located my pop's old Krups brand meat slicer and brought that along with
the two kinds of Prosciutto..."Americano" and "Piccante."
These came in chunks of roughly one pound. We also brought some
French-styled salami, a Rosette de Lyon, to run through the slicer.
Ellen brought some comestibles for the Tolmach pantry...
We trekked to the cellar for a brewski...
Jonathan told us about a British brewer with a similar name
and he'd made some sort of similarly-styled beer...
Back in the kitchen, there was some home-baked bread to go
with the prosciutto and salami.
We brought a little birthday gift for Lucy...some rooster
glasses.
It was coming down in buckets during much of the afternoon, a
dreary sight to some and a welcome one to the rest of us.
Jonathan was very proud of Lucy's handiwork in making a
stuffed cabbage.
This would, then, spend an hour, or so, in the oven...
Chanterelles.
We fired up the meat slicer and ran some salami through it.
We opened a couple of bottles of white wine, too.
Wieninger's 2006 Nussberg Alte Reben is a field blend of mixed white grapes from
a famous hillside site in Vienna. It's a delightful bottle of wine, but
sells for about $30-$35 a bottle, a bit more costly than we found it to be
worth.
The Philippe Colin 2005 Chassagne-Montrachet was a woody white Burgundy with
lots of coconut aromas and flavors.
A Chablis Grand Cru "Les Clos" of Les Chablisienne was perfectly good
"Chablis," but it didn't measure up to its lofty "Grand Cru"
status in our view.
C'est la vie...
We were able to slice the prosciutto fairly thinly and the "Americano"
was really good.
Their spiced version was too intensely redolent of fennel and pepper. It
reminded me more of peppered "Good & Plenty" Candy and this
overshadowed the prosciutto.
Happily, though, the Americano was quite good and capable of giving Parma and
San Daniele prosciutti a run for the money.
Lucy and Jonathan had prepared some fresh chestnuts...they
peeled them after cooking and then dropped them into a pan with olive oil and
sage.
We spooned some of this mixture onto the bread and laid a slice of Americano
prosciutto on top...very fine!
Guido.
Mama de Guido.
Ellen
Meanwhile, the rain continued outside...
Guido and Gayle brought some cioppino. I brought some
Dolcetto.
The E. Pira Dolcetto d'Alba from the 2007 vintage was exceptional!
Angelina enjoys Jonathan's bread with the cioppino.
Gayle enjoys the wine...
The Tolmachs made a stellar palate cleanser of prickly pears...
Next we had the stuffed cabbage that Lucy had made...
Guido's homemade Cabernet from the 2008 vintage was delicious and a nice
accompaniment to the food.
A Gagnard Delagrange 2006 Chassagne Montrachet Rouge Premier
Cru was a pleasant, wiry, lean red Burgundy. It may develop into a nice
old wine one day, but I was disappointed in this bottle.
Mangia!
Dessert was a lovely lavender cake with blood orange ice
cream.
And a bottle of Ojai's late-harvest Chardonnay from the 2006 vintage.
Nice!
Jonathan cranked up the fireplace...
And by this time, I was in need of a snooze...
We said our good-byes and thanks and made our way through the stormy night back
over the hill, a world away from the serenity of Filoli.
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