With a little help from our friends

You've seen the post about my friend Jennifer who is photographing our wedding, right? In almost every aspect of our planning, we've recruited loved ones to participate and it has made the experience richer and more special than we could have imagined.

We happen to have amazing and talented friends (I know I know, I said that already), and Lena is one of them. We met on a summer abroad program at Oxford in 1998 and have been in each other's lives ever since. (I was with her when she met her husband and I was in her wedding.)

We've shared so many good times...Lena is funny, smart, beautiful and is an incredible mother to their little one, who happens to share my birthday.

The girl is super crafty in a way that could put Martha Stewart to shame. She makes birth announcements, invitations, and various other stationery-centric things so when I asked her to make our wedding invitations, she enthusiastically said yes. (Thank you!) Knowing Lena's incredible eye for style, I knew we would have fun collaborating and was confident that she would take the image and the colors I had and make magic out of them.

Aren't they fantastic?

I just love the ribbon that holds in the R.S.V.P. envelope, the square shape with rounded corners, and the typeface that she chose. Lena, you outdid yourself!


Being engaged has been one of the most exciting experiences we've had. The planning and anticipation will soon transition into the wedding, an immensely special day in our lives. Having the announcement of our union made by the loving hands of one of my best friends is a memory that we will both treasure.

Thank you Lena, you are a dear friend!

Please send a Lettere, Maria

Last weekend as Jeremy and I had the pleasure of lunching with Michele Scicolone at Keste' in New York, I came across the most unlikely but very familiar sparkling red wine.

Please read Jeremy's report on the food here, and his definitive essay answering the question on the pizza with wine or pizza with beer debate.

Although DoBianchi and I do love some Lambrusco, and its southern counterpart, Gragnano, this was neither. Imagine my surprise when I saw an open bottle of Lettere (pron. LEH-te-rey) open on the counter of Keste'! The dork in me squealed with delight, as this is such a rarity to see in the states. When I ordered it from the waiter (quite rudely, I gave my dining companions no other option) he insisted that I meant Gragnano. "No, Lettere" I said..."Gragnano...?" he responded.

Just look at those purple bubbles! How can you not want to dive in?

I got up, showed him the empty bottle, and successfully resisted the urge to explain the difference. He dug around the back of the refrigerator and found the last bottle. Whew.

It turns out that the Cantine Federiciane Gragnano supplier was out of stock, so they sent the Lettere in its stead. They are practically interchangeable, so it was a fluke that we stumbled upon this bit of Campania in Manhattan's West Village.

There is no better companion to pizza (besides beer) than a cool glass of fizzy red wine. All over Campania, Gragnano and Lettere are the pairings of choice for all types of pizza and panuozzi. They are fragrant, simple, and low in alcohol. The zesty bubbles make quick work of pizza dough and rich mozzarella without overwhelming the delicacy inherent in REAL pizza napoletana.


So, Gragnano and Lettere are two sub zones of the Penisola Sorrentina DOC and are named for the eponymous villages. (You can read a post I wrote about Gragnano almost 4 years ago here.)
The grapes allowed in both for 'rosso frizzante' are piedirosso (min 40%), sciascinoso (the local name for Olivella**) and/or aglianico (max 20%), and 'others' (max 40%).


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Drinking a Gragnano and a Lettere from the same producer can reveal a slight difference between the two, but they are equally delightful. One of my favorites from my days in Campania was Vini Iovine, though I'm sure they aren't available in Texas. Any adventurous Texan importers out there...?

Lettere is one of those rare pieces of southern Italian authenticity that one can occasionally find stateside. Along with Gragnano it is a wine that you simply must try, for the the sheer fun of it.

Well, I'll leave the etymological research of the name Lettere to my DoBianchi, but for now if you live in New York, go out and get some!

**The name olivello is a reference to the elongated shape of the grapes, similar to an olive. It is believed that there are two different types of olivello, one being sciascinoso, the other being true olivello. There is much more than a footnote to be done about this grape alone, not to mention the dialectical name for piedirosso. Stay tuned.

Tracie B and Jeremy P's "Gettin' Hitched" Photo Session

Y'all know by now that Jeremy (DoBianchi) and I are engaged, right? I've fought the temptation to bore you with tales of frolicking about with my itchy trigger finger on a registry gun, obsessing over cake, and general wedding planning stories that I find fascinating...emphasis on the 'I.'

But this little bit has to be shared. My dear old friend Jennifer of the husband and wife wedding photography super duo The Nichols Studio (click here to see her faves from the session) is shooting our wedding. She and her husband CJ and are AMAZING at what they do. She is by far one the best that I've seen and we are honored that they agreed to come out to California and photograph this special moment in our lives.

Everyone has priorities in a wedding, I happen to think that the photographer has to be the best! Precious memories to be recorded cannot be entrusted to just anyone.

So, gushing aside...here are some of our faves, in no particular order.








You can see more of The Nichols Photography on their blog here, you can see some of their packages at their website here, and you can see their ADORABLE family photography here.

Have fun browsing around! Thanks Jenn!

Sweeter Than a Birthday Cake

Despite the fact that my birthday was Sunday, thanks to DoBianchi we've been celebrating since Friday. Coasting on the fumes of that feeling of entitlement we all get once a year, I am going to shamelessly brag about what an amazing fiance' my Jeremy is.

I need not use words to boast, I will simply share with you the video he made for me that accompanies the song that he wrote for me and produced on his humble little Mac.

Yes ladies, romance is alive and I have proof.



Thank you DoBianchi, I never knew a birthday could be so fun!

Paging Dr. Parzen

Well just look at what my DoBianchi has gotten himself into. My fiance' Jeremy will be teaching a 6-class series on Italian wine at the Austin Wine Merchant, starting Tuesday October 6.

Please click here for details. Space is limited and seats are inexpensive so make your reservations today!

SO cute :)

Vino in Dialetto, Vino in Poesia

Just last week, one last important bit of my Jeremy P's life was transferred to Austin. From his 10 years in New York, he had box upon box of books in storage, along with some pictures and his diplomas. We called a moving company and this precious stuff arrived safely.

Yesterday, as he opened every box I could hear "Oh wow!" or "Oh my God, I could barely live without this" or "Yes!"

Before long, I was sitting on the couch with a stack of books that he would bring, excited, one by one...usually some sort of ancient cookery or little books about wine or poetry, or poetry about wine.

(For Jeremy to do his DoBianchi thing, he needs his books, that scholar of mine.)

One of the gioelli that he found, knowing I would love it, was a little pink book of poems about wine in Neapolitan dialect:

Cantene', sto vino vuosto
e' di Puglia, 0 e' Calavrese
E' nu vino troppo tuosto
Unu surzo, e mm'ha pigliato

Comme fosse...mm'ha stunato
Ve veco 'int'a nu velo
Nun v'affiuro bona
Stu vino comme stona!
-------
This wine of yours,
is it from Puglia or is it Calabrese?
It's a very strong wine
One sip and it has me

It's as if...I'm in a daze
I see you through a veil
I can barely recognize you
This wine, it knocks me off my feet!
-------
Happy Labor Day! Please enjoy some wine.

In Vino Veritas, for Real

Breaking news from Montalcino...

Italy's treasury department has named the 5 wineries found guilty of Merlot-ing their Brunello. Please read DoBianchi's summary of a report published today in Florence.

Evviva la tradizione!

Love Born in the Blogosphere, or How I met my DoBianchi

Here's a story of two people who somehow managed to find each other in this big wide world (as Alice said) with a little help from Blogger and Wordpress. Read his version here.

Recently returned from my 4 and a half year stay in Italy, I started a new life in my old town, Austin. On March 17, 2008, I began my job in wine sales and was enjoying the ease with which one can "do things" in this country.

I spent a few months reconnecting with family and friends, helping me ease back into the different rhythm of life here. It was good! I was home! And happy.

And then it got better.

*cue going-back-in-time harp*

Over the previous year, I had visited a blog called DoBianchi, written by a musician-wine-guy-writer-Dr. Jeremy Parzen...who was this guy? I couldn't understand exactly what he did, or more specifically, how he did all of those things, but I liked his blog.

Last June, I had a conversation with my friend, mentor, and fellow wine blogger Alfonso Cevola (a.k.a. "Italian Wine Guy" whom I also met via blogging) about Jeremy. Alfonso had met him in January, becoming fast friends. I was intrigued, I asked, "What does he do? What is he like? People seem to hold him in such high esteem...WHAT IS HIS STORY, ALFONSO?!"

Actually, I was a little more discreet, but inside I was curious! Very.

After some not-so-gentle nudging at the hands of IWG, I joined Facebook (end of June, '08). Two weeks later, on July 15th, 2008, I got a very fateful friend request from Jeremy. I accepted right away and noticed that it was the day after his birthday. I wished him happy birthday and went straight to his blog. Read here what I found.

There was a post about his bday dinner, the wines they opened, and a very lonely comment section. I wished him happy birthday again, on the blog, the first to do so, thank you very much!

And then, it happened. Jeremy sent me an email. "Thanks for the comment at DoBianchi. Tracie B, I'm intrigued...what made you come back from Italy?"

I was flattered by his curiosity...I responded, and thus began our story.

One email a day quickly turned into 20. Twenty emails a day quickly turned into song dedications and mixed CDs in the mail and that turned into Jeremy flying from San Diego to Austin to meet me for the first time.

His visit was brief, but quite enough for me to know that I had found what I had always wanted. If you don't know, my Jeremy P is a kind, handsome, creative, intelligent, dynamic, interesting, musical, devoted guy.

AND he speaks Italian! Yes, we certainly share "an acute case of Italophilia," as he wrote in his first email.

After that initial visit at the end of August of last year, he went away for 5 weeks. I was under the impression that 5 weeks consisted of 35 days, always. But this 5 weeks lasted exactly an eternity.

The end of September came and his visit lasted a week--a week that lasted .073 seconds.

There was pining, pining, and more pining between trips, but he came back again every month. I went to visit San Diego once too. (F.Y.I.--Crying on a Southwest flight back home gets you a free drink from sympathetic attendants.)

Every time we had to part, my heart broke right down the middle, then into a million pieces. But on December 15th, 2008 my sweet DoBianchi drove his old Volvo across the country with all of his belongings. He came to Austin to live. He moved across the country for this country girl, can you believe that?

*back to the present*

That's the short version...it has now been a year and here are some of our special memories:

Me and 2B at Ginny's, his first time. We brought Premier Cru Chablis there that night!

Surprise tickets to the Willie concert in October for my birthday!

Lisini Riserva, Tracie vintage ('75)

Borgogno Riserva, Jeremy vintage

Xmas with my family

New Year's Eve

France! Nous Non Plus (Jeremy's Band) mini-tour

My first trip to San Francisco (with Kermit Lynch!)

Last weekend, having fun with my (our) family :) Isn't he handsome?

So you see, it's been a good year. Our story doesn't end, but now begins...on Saturday May 9th, this fairytale became even sweeter when that Jeremy P asked this Tracie B to marry him.

I said CERTO! Of course I will...it has been a stellar vintage, after all. He has made me the happiest Texana this world has ever seen and in January of next year, we will celebrate the best pairing yet.**

Here's to my DoBianchi! You jumped out of the computer screen and into my life with courage and purpose. So glad for the internet, and so glad that we were both just crazy enough to believe that love could happen, even in wine blogging.

**Sorry for the cringe-inducing wine-analogy cheesiness, but that's what love does to a girl.

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

Once upon a time, not so many years ago, in a land far away from Texas, Jeremy was born. He grew up to be a kind, generous, sensitive, erudite and creative man. He lived here and he lived there, until one day he came to Texas to be with Tracie B.

Please stay tuned for our story tomorrow, the anniversary of the day we met.

Happy Birthday, 2B...can you believe on this day last year both of our lives were about to change...and we didn't even know it!

----------

Why do birds suddenly appear
Every time you are near?
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you.

Why do stars fall down from the sky
Every time you walk by?
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you.

On the day that you were born
The angels got together
And decided to create a dream come true
So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold
And starlight in your eyes of blue.

That is why all the girls in town
Follow you all around.
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you.

On the day that you were born
The angels got together
And decided to create a dream come true
So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold
And starlight in your eyes of blue.

That is why all the girls in town
Follow you all around.
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you.
Just like me (Just like me)
They long to be
Close to you.

Wahhhhhhhhhhh, close to you.

31 Days of Natural Wine, Day6

A new post every day for a WHOLE MONTH! It can happen...

Please check out Cory's blog Saignee where he is doing a Series of 31 posts on natural wine. Today he is actually featuring the post I did on our February visit to the Joly winery.

Cory comes highly recommended by my DoBianchi (read his guest post here), who was so excited about Saignee that they met at Terroir in San Francisco during the Nous Non Plus California tour.

Tomorrow, the absolutely fabulous Alice Feiring (hi Alice!) will post, so make sure you tune in for that too.

Maybe the Mr. and Mrs. Saignee could come to Austin soon for a little Chablis and Chickens*#t Bingo? As DoBianchi likes to say, that would be blog-o-licious.

Learning to Deal: Fried Chicken and My Thoughts on Breadcrumbs

Let me just start by saying that there is no excuse to use store-bought bread crumbs. They are SO easy to make as long as you have bread. And if the bread is fresh, as long as you have time to dry them out in the oven, let them cool completely, and grind it down in the food processor (that you surely own), you will never have to resort to industrial leftovers...

But what's a girl to do when her guy asks her ever so sweetly to make his favorite fried chicken for dinner? At 6:00 in the evening and she still had to go to the store? How could I say no? (My "fried chicken" is an Italian-style cotoletta di pollo, I use thinly-sliced** chicken breasts and bread them with flour-egg-breadcrumb coating.) The preferred contorni are mashed potatoes and some kind of leafy green, so you can imagine that this is no 30-minute meal.

An obvious solution would be to grab a pack of store-bought breadcrumbs (see first paragraph), but I had turned my back on them years ago after realizing that they all contained partially-hydrogenated oil. In a very Christopher Columbus moment I discovered Kikkoman Panko a few months ago and realized (joy!) that they have no P.H. oil on the ingredient list.

In any case, whether you make your own crumbs or buy them at the store, you can easily put a little sass in the frass by "doctoring them up," as my mom would say. Here's what you do:


Once your crumbs are processed, add lemon zest, fresh basil, fresh thyme, salt, pepper, and Parmiggiano-Reggiano and pulse until everything is ground (for the chicken in the first pic, I even used a spoonful of cornmeal--can't ignore the 'southern' in me). Last week I threw in a bit of lively tarragon that was in my fridge and it added a whole new level of aroma to the seasoned crumbs. The flavors of lemon and basil tend to whither a bit in the heat, so don't be shy--use a whole lemon's zest and a brazen handful of basil.

That's the secret, as for the rest (flour-egg-breadcrumb-FRY) you are all accomplished cooks and know exactly what to do!

And who doesn't love fried?

**From the "don't get me started" section of my blog: "thinly-sliced" is a foreign concept here in Austin. I was quite spoiled in Italy to find everything sliced to perfection--prosciutto, veal, pork, chicken breasts, turkey breasts--everything! The patience that I exercise when the butcher proudly shows me how carefully he cut the breast down to a one-half-inch thickness is grounds for canonization. The way that I cheer on the deli guy to cut my prosciutto better (come on, you CAN DO IT!) is a testament to my optimism, right Jeremy P? One day it will be better in Austin...it will! I have a dream, and in it, I can almost see you through the slice.

My Guest Blogger: DoBianchi's Take on Fresh Pasta

To complete my pasta series with style (you can see part 1 here and part 2 here) I enlisted the help of my own resident smarty pants, Jeremy Parzen. In addition to having spent a number of years in Northern Italy, he has a doctorate in Italian Literature. His authoritative voice on all things pasta and Petrachan will impress you for sure...worked for me!

Take it away, DoBianchi...

I cannot conceal that when Tracie B asked me to guest blog at My Life Italian, I was thrilled. I mean, after all, who wouldn't be honored to contribute to the blog of the woman who wrote a line I wish I wrote, about happy vines she saw in Ischia: If I were a vine, I would grow here. Her innate gifts as a writer, her humor, honesty, and honed palate, and — above all — her insights and perspective into the "garden of Europe" — the bel paease — the fair country are what made me fall for her in the first place. The title of her blog alone still makes me melt. Hey, Tracie B, you had me at hello… Or should I say, ciao?

One of the fun things about our relationship and our shared Italophilia is how she lived in Southern Italy, while I lived in the North. When we talk together in Italian, it's a veritable Tower of Babel: she, the belle from Orange, Texas speaks with a rich, musical Neapolitan accent, and I, from San Diego, speak with a nasaly, sharp Veneto accent!

When she posted the other day about the preference and tradition of "dried pasta," pastasciutta, in Southern Italy, she suggested that I write something about the fresh pasta that prevails in Emilia. So, I wrote to my friend Dindo in Bologna, and asked him to take some photographs of his mother making the fresh pasta that she makes nearly every day.

It's not that people in the North don't eat dried pasta. As a matter of fact, the Emilians are very proud of their Barilla, which is based in their region. But fresh lasagne and tagliatelle reign supreme there, as do a wide variety of stuffed fresh pastas — ravioli, tortelli, tortellini, cappelletti, etc.

Historically, dried pasta has its origins in Southern Italy. In Maestro Martino's 15th-century cookbook The Art of Cooking (which I translated for University of California Press, 2005), he includes a recipe for a dried pasta that resemble today's fusilli. He calls it "Sicilian macaroni" and instructs the reader to dry it in the sun, adding that it can last for up to three years. It's very likely that the warmer temperatures of the South and the ventilation provided by the sea are among the factors that would make Gragnano near Naples the unrivalled center for the production of dried pasta by the mid-18th century.

In landlocked Emilia, humidity and colder temperatures are factors in a unique macroclimate that gives us a variety of culinary wonders, like Parmigiano Reggiano. Did you know, for example, that you can replicate the methods for making Parmigiano Reggiano elsewhere in the world, but it only gets that unique texture and consistency when made in the foggy, damp provinces of Parma and Reggio Emilia (where the smell of pig poop is ubiquitous)?

There are other reasons why the Emilians still favor fresh pasta but the geography and climate alone are a big part of why fresh pasta prevails in the North.

Here is Signora Corradino's method for making garganelli, with ridges of course!


After you've rolled the pasta out, you cut it into squares.


Then you roll those around a wooden rod (this is similar to Maestro Martino's technique for Sicilian macaroni).


Then you make the ridges — so important in order for the sauce to penetrate the pasta — using a specially made pasta loom.

Weekly Wino: Oh What a Night

A trip to Uncle Ace's is always a pleasure for Jeremy and me, where we are taken care of, cooked for, and forced to drink wine from the rich cellar of our mutual friend. We are more than happy to help him whittle down his supply of old wine, a worthy sacrifice for the guy who has affected such positive change in both of our lives.

After my workday was over, DoBianchi and I made the quick trek up I-35 with visions of 1968 Conterno Monfortino Riserva dancing in our heads. We were greeted by our (Galeotto) Alfonso and his SO Kim. Arriving at dinnertime, Kim had made a lovely little antipasto of herbed chevre on baby endive and paired with Loimer "Kamptal" Gruner Veltliner.

The chevre-y goodness paired perfectly with the dancing minerality of the Gruner.

The menu would be local, grass-fed T-bones and veggies to support the 1986 Mouton and star-of-the-night 1968 Barolo Monfortino by Giacomo Conterno. Despite the champion and expert effort of our very own sommy-somm Jeremy, the cork broke. I cannot imagine anyone getting that thing out intact.

No matter! There was no cork a-floatin' in my glass.

If you look at the label closely, you will see that it was aged in botti (huge neutral-wood vats) for a full decade before it was bottled. This wine was taken care of, raised with a loving hand, and left to nap peacefully in Alfonso's cellar.

This wine...aaahhhh. This wine...makes me go all wistful. It had that old Nebbiolo nose of cedar/sandalwood/suede with a hint of moist, leafy underbrush. If there were a to-do list for the expression tertiary aromas, we would have checked every one.

What no one expected was the acidity. This wine was ALIVE and not in the way that a forty year-old wine can be--explosion of taste and smell, only to burn out with an ephemeral last gasp--it HUNG OUT. It was in for the party and if we hadn't drained it in less than an hour, it would have drunk us under the table in a no-country-for-old-farts kind of way.

This Barolo had LIFE and it had umami. I don't want to give more specific tasting notes because what was special was how this wine made us feel, transcending the material and bringing us into a soulful flex of admiration. I felt surprise, appreciation, lovely yummy, in the moment, in the glass, in love, in a state of being that was...together.

Pastasciutta Part 2: La Cottura

Click here for Part 1.

La Cottura in Italian refers to "how you cook the pasta." Jeremy (my very own highly-paid Italian language expert) explained to me that there is no direct translation, when I asked him if there were another way to define this word without using an entire English phrase.

But there is no direct or "slavish" translation for this second important element in making a great plate of pasta. Much more simple, at the same time much easier to err, than it would seem.

The simplicity (and difficulty) in all of this is twofold.

1. Salting the water
2. Duration of boiling

For the first, many a cookbook would have you egregiously underseason your water. I use the word "season" because how you flavor the water translates to flavor enhancement of the pasta itself. In Italy, we can eat a fantastic primo piatto, but recreating that glory once home can leave even the best home cook scratching her head, wondering why she can't get that same intangible...umph.

One thing that I have seen over and over in my years in Italy is a generous flow of salt into the boiling pot. Taste your water; it should be just a bit less salty than the sea. This may seem like an exaggeration but I promise it will take the pasta itself from being a neutral vessel for the exaltation of your best sauce to a supporting role that takes the whole show over the top.


Second, please don't overcook your pasta. I said PLEASE DO NOT NOT NOT OVERCOOK THE PASTA! Did you hear me? Chewing on slightly undercooked pasta is preferable to the awful sensation of a rigatone that gives up too easily under the pressure of your teeth.

Besides the flavor of your sauce, you should really be enjoying a well seasoned spaghetto with the pleasant tactile sensation of pasta that is perfectly al dente. You want to feel, taste, and smell its presence underlining the fabulosity of your perfect ragu'.

To achieve this effortlessly, read the cooking time on your box of high quality dried pasta (remember lesson 1?) and drain it about 2 minutes short. There will be carry-over cooking as well as a bit more time in the pan with the condiment. (Please tell me that you stir your pasta in the pan with the sauce! Also important--must meld.)

Tell your guests to sit down and dig in when the plate hits the table because, honey, zee pasta waits-a for a-nobody!

Call Me Crazy

But living in the Garden of Eatin' that was Italy didn't exorcise the taco-loving Texana out of me. Even the clams couldn't eclipse the burning in my heart that was my love for Mexican (Texican) food.

I always make nachos/quesadillas/tacos at home. I have convinced myself that I can make them healthy without a hint less of flavor, which is important because my metabolism cooperates less every day closer I get to 34. What I do is make a filling/topping that is versatile and, being forced to confess, I would say damn good.

My DoBianchi has asked me to post a recipe, inspired by our ritual equation of American Idol+nachos=love. I will do no such thing, as I am too willy-nilly with my filling to be precise, but I will tell you what I do and maybe you can too:

*One pound, maybe a bit more, of ground turkey or chicken breast. (HINT: when you can find it, ground chicken breast is quite a bit cheaper.)

*4-5 T of Chili powder, not the authentic New Mexican kind, but that Americanized spice mix. I like Fiesta...it's fancy.

*1 can of drained and rinsed (rinse please!) black beans. I like Progresso and Goya.

*Handful of frozen corn, fresh if you find yourself in the midst of Summer.

*A bunch of fresh baby spinach

*As much cilantro as you can stand to wash and cut, the more the better!

*2-3 limes, depending how juicy they are

*1 minced garlic clove and maybe 1/2 cup of finely diced onion.

1. Put the onion in a heated (mediumish) pan coated with olive oil, saute 5 minutes and add garlic until it becomes fragrant.
2. Add the bulk of the chili powder and stir with onion, garlic, and oil.
3. Add spinach and cook, and this is important, until the water is gone. Add ground meat and brown, putting the balance of chili powder in the mix.
4. Now that the meat is cooked, season to taste with salt and pepper, adding more chili powder if you're not feeling it.
5. Now it's time for the corn, stir it in until it's heated and seasoned. FOLD in the black beans, letting the spices penetrate without breaking them into mush.
NOTE: At this point, you want the mix to be free of running liquid, but not totally dry.
6. Take the pan off of the heat and go crazy with the lime juice and cilantro. Crazy! The lime juice is the secret that totally takes this over the top.

If you're making nachos, top some chips with the filling, low-fat refrieds too should you choose, and a moderate amount of ColbyJack cheese. (I SO know we're not Mexican anymore, but it's "inspired.") Throw them in the oven, melt, and top them with shredded cabbage and more cilantro. The cabbage is delicious, crunchy, and much more nutritious than mere lettuce.

Jeremy and I LOVE Herdez ranchera salsa. Goes great on top of the nachos!

If you make a little more of the mix, you'll have it on hand in the fridge to make quesadillas, tacos, or tostadas at will.

Whew! For all of my hard work, Jeremy surprised me with a bottle of Tempier Rose' (seems to be another emerging pattern, next week Tempier Blanc?), and you can read his thoughts here. It was lovely, very much in the same way as its Rouge sibling that I wrote about two weeks ago, but it's his turn, so go read it please.

My poor guy has to eat this at least on a weekly basis, constantly reminded by the leftovers, but he's still hangin' around so I guess our resident DoBianchi is a sucker for punishment! Who knew?

Now go get your Mex on! And feel good about it.

As if I weren't impressed before...

...our Jeremy P (DoBianchi) dun' wrote him a book! Well, he translated it for Princeton Press. Can we get a big fat auguri? This Texana is so proud!

I mean, it's kind of a big deal :)

Blogication: To My Jeremy P

I must interrupt the regular programming to post a pic of my sweety and me. I have to say that this has been the best part about coming home and a confirmation that I do have a bit of sense...


Thank you for coming to Austin DoBianchi! You've made life even sweeter :)

Weekly Wino: Tempo per Tempier? Indeed.

I'll admit to being very excited about American Idol, but awkward performances and triumphant surprises made for a splendid evening over a glass of Tempier Bandol. My very own DoBianchi, was recently braggety-bragging about having drunk the famous Tempier Rose' that I have yet to taste. In his wisdom, to avoid seeing me take a long walk down pout street, my guy hastily opened a bottle the '05 Bandol Rouge last night.

Please visit here to git yerself a-learnin' about the Bandol appellation. I will not torture you with my clumsy and perfunctory version of history and percentages when my rested fingers can point you elsewhere. I'll just tell you that this Provencal beauty is mostly Mourvedre with some Cinsault, perhaps some other usual suspects. Maybe someone out there knows the recipe...? The Google gods granted me no such tech sheet in an admittedly brief search this morning.

I brought two cheeses home from Mandola's. The first was a Chevre, the second a Pecorino Sardo. I fully expected the former to pair with the aperitivo of bubbles and the latter with the Tempier. Instead, this wine seemed strong but SO delicate that the Pecorino overwhelmed it. The Chevre was, suprisingly, the perfect partner.

Who knew?

Aahh, now to the good stuff. The nose gave hints of earth and tar, supported by an undercurrent of black cherry liquorice. On top of the crust and the filling were sprinkles of anise, lavender, cedar, and eucalyptus. But what was new and MEMORABLE about this wine was the velvet softness that reminds me of the fresh, cool stroke of talcum powder on a warm summer day. It made my mouth water in the same way that natural minerality usually does, but this was not made of salt or stone, it was Baby Soft.

I could barely tear my nose away.

So when the performances were sub par, I retreated into my glass of babies and spice, thankful to Kermit Lynch for deliverance.

Keeping it Italian: 'A Past' Asciutt' Pt 1

Misconception Americans have about Italian food #32b, Section 2:

Fresh pasta is superior/preferred to dried pasta, the latter being merely a convenient substitute for the unskilled and lazy.

Many times I have heard people say, "But fresh pasta is definitely better." Well, not exactly. I will start by saying that fresh pasta is a more Northern tradition, while dried pasta is a more Southerly thang.

The absolute Mecca for fresh pasta is without a doubt, Emilia-Romagna. That being said, all regions, no matter their Latitudinal persuasion, boast their own fresh pasta. (In Naples, they have eggless scialatielli, made with regular flour and water, typically dressed with frutti di mare...yum!)

Dried and fresh pasta have two very different but equally important uses. For example, no Italian in her right mind would EVER make a puttanesca with fresh pasta (click here to read DoBianchi's excellent history on this misunderstood sauce). On the other hand, who ever heard of dried ravioli? Spaghetti/penne with fresh tomatoes would not be the same without perfectly al dente, high-quality dried pasta.

Since I am a girl of the south, on both sides of the Atlantic, we'll concentrate on the latter. (In my series Keeping it Italian, we'll focus on how to get the good stuff right here at home.)

There are a few indicators of quality to help you navigate a grocery isle (stay away from anything that says "noodles" unless you're making Asian food, please.) The most important is the surface of the pasta, whatever shape it may be. It must-a to be ruvido (that means rough), not like sandpaper, but a bit like the fine side of a fingernail file. This helps the sauce adhere to the pasta, clinging to the hope of making your mouth happy.

Buy one of those bags of 79 cent "noodles" when you buy your good spaghetti. You'll feel the difference!

The second, which reveals itself only after cooking, is the integrity of the pasta. If it falls apart when you stir it with the sauce, it is too old. It may have been a fine bag of love in its prime, but it's a sign that your grocer isn't turning over his stock.

**Digression alert**
One more thing, and this is a personal preference, but I believe with my entire Texan being that all "cut" pasta (penne, ziti, rigatoni, etc) should be ridged, or rigata. There is nothing uglier than a plate of smooth penne, espesh when one or two are broken. Why have Lays when you can have Ruffles? Why would you forgo the extra fun of added texture for the flat and boring landscape of liscia (smooth)?

Back to business...

Must we spend 5-7 dollars a pound on Rustichella d'Abruzzo to get it right? Maybe. This is terrific pasta, but this starch's humble purpose in the kitchen becomes a luxury when it should be a nutritious and everyday option.

In most supermarkets you can find DeCecco, which is a fine product, though industrial, but I use it regularly. My favorite, however, is I SapORI di Napoli (this is a bit of a word-play, sapori means flavors, the capitalized ori is the plural of oro, which means gold). I found in this brand what I had been looking for since I returned from Italia. It's made in Caserta (just outside of Naples) and feels like a true artisan pasta.

Otherwise, Garofolo is great AND made in Gragnano. This Southern Italian town is home to panuozzi, eponymous fizzy red wine, and it is molto famous for its dried pasta...

Please stay tuned for Part 2 where we'll talk about cooking the pasta!

Weekly Wino: What the hell's wrong with Chardonnay?

It's 100% Chardonnay, if you like that kind of thing.
--some guy working in a local wine bar, telling me about one of their sparkling wines

It never fails to surprise me when a "wine person" utters such nonsense. Can we please stop propagating the misguided idea that all Chardonnay is oaky and buttery and therefore bad? Please dismount the high horses, it only makes one seem ignorant to poo-poo an entire varietal for the unfortunate trends which have tainted this noble grape's reputation.

I guess this guy has never had a Chablis, more southerly Burgundy, or a Blanc de Blanc...? There are even some Chardonnays out of California that are fresh and clean, fermented in stainless steel and bottle-aged instead of barriqued.

The Chablis manifestation is where one should start to understand the truth of Chardonnay. It is usually naked, nervous, stripped of make-up and a hair dryer. But it has natural beauty which shines and delights even more because it's clean.

Still in Burgundy, but heading south, we might encounter some Côte de Beaune. This Chardonnay is a bit more voluptuous with its light touch of malo-lactic fermentation and kiss of oak. But eet ees zo French, done with elegance, destined for subtlety and long life.

Aaaaah, and Champagne. You know how I feel about bubbles. A good Blanc de Blanc (made with 100% Chardonnay) is an effervescent delight. Grapes are picked precociously, to maintain high acidity and low sugar, much like those spunky little gymnasts who remain tiny into adulthood to delight us with back-flips and perfect dismounts.

BUT...we wouldn't have a Weekly Wino without a wine, would we? The protagonist of this drama is a 2007 Côte de Lechet Chablis (premier cru) by Laurent Tribut. This wine is still a bit young, but its potential is clear and DoBianchi and I enjoyed it thoroughly on Valentine's Day. We will surely revisit this feminuccia in a year.

Tasting notes (let's go with a list, I have taken too much of your time already):

*Do you remember the Sprite "limon" from the 80s?
*strong minerality
*bit of hazelnut...or is that graphite?
*ultra tart pineapple
*if there were a crystal ball in this glass, I would see the future hint of cinnamon upon maturity
*apple peel

I encourage you to drink more Chardonnay and this one is a good place to start. Premier cru Chablis can be relatively inexpensive so go for it!

And if you are a wine professional, please speak responsibly because people do listen.

This wine is available locally at Austin Wine Merchant.