We had another fabulous dinner party last night with our usual group….one thing I realized before I get into the wonderful food and wines, I am very lucky in that my friends are all fantastic cooks!
I was responsible for the main course and followed Ina Garten’s advice once again, prepare as much as possible before your guests arrive as then you can relax and enjoy their company. I made homemade meatballs (with three kinds of meat!) and tomato sauce from scratch and I am not going to lie, it is a lot of work but it was delicious and I had it all done and my kitchen clean before anyone arrived.
This is the same group of friends that I have been cooking with for years…we know each other well and we are not afraid of trying new recipes out…we have all had our flops and our standouts but I have noticed one thing has changed, the menu selection has now become more kid friendly with the recent additions to our little group.
I thought I would share a picture of some of the fabulous wines from last night…now, before anyone thinks we are a bunch of lushes…many of these were half-bottles my husband brought home from work but when one of your friends is a well known wine maker in the area with a great collection of wines, there are always some new and fun ones to try.
My two favorites from last night were a 2009 Botani, a Jorge Ordonez selection from Spain that was crisp and clean and not typical of the moscatel from that region of Spain as they are typically sweet – this is a wonderfully dry and fruity wine that works great with seafood (we had seared scallops).
The red from last night that was everyone’s favorite was a 2008 Ciro Rosso from the Calabria region of Italy. It is 100% Gaglioppo grapes - a varietal most of us are not familiar with. It has soft tannins with light spicy-ness that paired beautifully with the spaghetti and meatballs.
We ended the evening with some delicious homemade biscotti, some Barbeito Malvasia, Tannat Dessert wine (had an intense vanilla flavor) and strong coffee. The kids hung in there and promptly collapsed well after their bedtime…another great evening.
XO
Amy
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