Have you ever asked yourself when you
should open that special bottle you've been holding onto? Maybe
you're like the average wine consumer that goes to the wine store and
drinks that night when you just purchased. Well if you need an
excuse or push to open a bottle of wine that you've been sitting on
waiting for a special occasion “open that bottle night” is the
perfect excuse to do so. Make an average night into an exciting one.
The perfect excuse to put your wine pairing hat on to and get
cooking in the kitchen.
What is open that bottle night?
It began in 1999 and was started by Wall Street Journal wine
columnists, John Brecher and Dorothy Gaiter. It's held the last
Saturday of every February. The wine you choose doesn't have to be
an expensive wine. It could be a bottle you brought back from a
memorable vacation or maybe you purchased it at a wine event where
you met the winemaker. I love opening wines that bring me back to a
place in time that created wonderful memories in my mind. That's why
I chose to open one of my bottles that I brought back from my wedding
in Italy for our Wine Pairing Weekend group's feature of open that
bottle night (#otbn).
When deciding what to pair with it I
opened my Under the Tuscan Sun cookbook, another memory of when I met
Frances Mayes at a book signing, and browsed many of the Tuscan
dishes. I chose to pair it with a baked sausage rigatoni. A little
different preparation than I normally would do with this dish as it
wasn't made with a pasta sauce, but rather a soffritto. What is a
soffritto? It stems from the Italian word for soffrigere meaning
to brown or slightly fry. It's a mixture of diced carrots, celery
and onions with herbs sauteed in olive oil.
To prepare the baked sausage rigatoni I started first with the sausage by browning it in a saute pan. I then prepared the soffritto and added chopped whole tomatoes. In the meantime
the pasta water was prepped to boil for making the rigatoni. In a
separate bowl ricotta was mixed with fontina and mozzarella. Once
the pasta was finished, I added the ricotta mix and soffritto into a
baking dish topped with bread crumbs and parmigiano. Finally it was baked in the
oven at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.
 |
| Soffritto |
Voila!
A beautiful pairing of Tuscan food &
wine. Try it for yourself for a night in Tuscany. Buon appetito!
Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm will post How #OTBN happens while on vacation in Dominica
Sue from A Palatable Pastime is pairing Pork Carnitas with Saint Cosme Cotes-Du-Rhone
Michelle from Rockin Red Blog is writing about South of the Border for Open That Bottle Night
Cindy from Grape Experiences is posting Wine and Dine: Two New Zealand Pinot Noirs and One-Pan Chicken
Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Camilla is pairing Red Wine Chorizo + 1994 Argyle Reserve Oregon Pinot Noir
Nancy from Pull That Cork will post Our OTBN Celebration: The Château Léoville-Las Cases Stole the Show
Lori from Dracaena Wines is sharing Wine is in Boxes. It's OTBN. Still turned out to be a night not to miss
Martin from ENOFYLZ Wine Blog will post Batting A Thousand for OTBN Vol 8- A Celebration With Friends
Jill from L'occasion is opening A Gigondas from the Cellar
Julie from Wine-N-Friends will share A memorable pairing with 2012 Kenzo Murasaki
Gwendolyn from Wine Predator is posting Cheers to Open That Bottle Night 2017 with Champagne from Bollinger
David from Cooking Chat is posting Chanterelle Beef Stew with a Special Wine
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