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Good wine deserves good food. Here are some of Michael's favorite recipes that will really
complement the flavor of the wine they are matched with.
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| Italian Relish Tray |
| Serve With: ZiniVini |
| There are so many types of salumi (plural for salami) out in the marketplace today. Buy a quality brand as it does make a difference. Feel like throwing a little Mortadella, Prosciutto di Parma or provolone on the tray? Feel free, we Italians love to improvise. |
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| Walnut and Ricotta Pesto |
| Serve With: Villa de Varda |
| In this version of pesto, the cheese substitutes for most of the olive oil. It makes an easy, flavorful pasta sauce: just toss a generous amount with hot pasta, a spoonful of butter, and a little of the pasta cooking water to thin. You could use this pesto as a layer in lasagna or stuff it into pasta shells. I make this pesto in a mortar (you’ll need a large one), but a food processor works as well. |
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| Chicken with Rosemary and Lemon Salt |
| Serve With: Frostwatch |
| I prefer to roast this chicken in a convection oven for a crispier skin, but if you only have a conventional oven, you'll still get a great result. The recipe makes extra seasoned salt, which you can use on pork chops, leg of lamb, or roasted potatoes. It will keep in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for a month. If you prefer not to have leftover seasoning, cut the salt recipe in half.
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Jan Birnbaum’s New Orleans-style Baby back Ribs |
| Serve With: Donati Family Vineyard |
| Most people start to put BBQ sauce on their food too early when it comes to the grill, as often the sauce will burn as opposed to making things juicier and giving additional flavor. Make sure to brush the ribs with the sauce in just the last half hour. This way it enhances the flavor of the meat. |
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| Prime Rib of Swordfish
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| Serve With: Cloverdale Ranch |
| Ask your local fishmonger to cut out as much of the bloodline as possible. Swordfish is best carved with an electric knife or very sharp serrated knife. The recipe calls for fennel spice rub. Feel free to make your own, but if you want to save some time order some from www.napastyle.com. Substitute a beautiful piece of tuna if you can’t find any really fresh swordfish. |
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| Grilled Lamb Steaks with Herbs de Napa |
| Serve With: Cà Lustra |
| Lamb steaks aren’t in many supermarket meat cases, so you’ll need a friendly butcher to make this dish. But every butcher will know what you mean if you ask to have steaks cut from the top of the leg, using the band saw. It’s the same cut as a ham steak, and like a ham steak, it has a bit of the leg bone in it. Grilled until crusty and medium-rare, these thick steaks make much more satisfying eating than a butterflied boneless leg of lamb. I like to serve them with undressed greens, like watercress, and let the flavorful juices from the meat dress the greens. |
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| Cedar Planked Salmon with Basil-Chive Butter |
| Serve With: Nevis Bluff |
| Cooking fish on a cedar plank is an old Native American technique. As the planks get hot, the aromatic oils are released and permeate the fish. You can find untreated cedar shingles or shims at lumberyards, or ask to have a 1-by-6 cut into 2 foot-long lengths. Soak the planks for at least 12 hours to prevent flare-ups, weighting the boards to keep them from floating. |
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| Braised Rabbit Crostini |
| Serve With: Montebuena |
| This recipe is from Italy’s Piedmont region, which you can tell from the currants. They borrowed the idea from the French, who often pair rabbit with prunes. If you’re lucky enough to have access to wild fennel, use a handful of fennel fronds and seeds instead of store bought fennel seed. If rabbit is unavailable or a little off-putting, just substitute chicken. |
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Melon Fettuccini with Sweet Wine and Fresh Mint |
| Serve With: Flare |
| It is melon season so use the best melon you can find whether it is cantaloupe, honeydew, Crenshaw or another variety. If you don’t have a mandoline slicer, cut the melon by hand as thin as you can.
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Bay Scallop and Grapefruit Ceviche with Avocado and Radish
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| Serve With: Cariblanco |
| If you are not a big fan of ceviche, take all the same ingredients and create a lovely warm salad as an appetizer or main course. Just skip the marinating of the scallops and sauté them in some butter or extra virgin olive oil and combine all the remaining ingredients that are in the assembly section and add to the salad greens. Take the marinade and reduce the fruit juices by half for vinaigrette, to dress the salad. |
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| Spanish Style Paella |
| Serve With: Aylés |
| Paella for a large group is one of my favorite ways to entertain. I once helped a friend cook enough paella for two thousand people! It’s a good idea to buy one large or a few smaller paella pans if you intend to make this recipe. |
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| Brodetto di Mare |
| Serve With: Soave Classico |
| This Italian shellfish stew is one of the most popular dishes I made as a restaurant chef, and it translates easily to the home kitchen. If you don't have a skillet large enough to accommodate the scallops and shrimp without crowding them, cook them separately, dividing the oil between them. |
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| Grilled lamb Steaks with Herbes de Napa |
| Serve With: Nifo Taburno |
| Lamb steaks aren’t in many supermarket meat cases, so you’ll need a friendly butcher to supply the lamb steaks. It’s the same cut as a ham steak, and like a ham steak, it has a bit of the leg bone in it. You can make your own or purchase my Herbs de Napa at www.napastyle.com. |
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| Portobello Mushroom, Grilled Like a Steak
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| Serve With: Domaine Alfred Goss Creek |
| If the olive oil flares up and burns the mushrooms, it creates a petroleum flavor. So make sure the oil doesn’t drip from the mushrooms when you put them on the grill. If you don’t care to start the grill, you can cook the mushrooms indoors on a ridged stovetop grill. Oil it lightly and preheat before cooking the mushrooms. Alternatively, you can use a heavy sauté pan. |
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Halibut and Corn Salad with Broken Tomato Vinaigrette |
| Serve With: Valdelainos Verdejo |
| This dish is built of parts that can be enjoyed separately or together: grilled fish, a vegetable salad, and the big accent flavor of a vinaigrette made from reduced fresh tomato juice and olive oil. In about 1992, we began experimenting to create the intensely flavored dressings we call “broken vinaigrettes.” Try this tomato vinaigrette on meat or sliced tomatoes.
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| Lamb lollipops with Mint Salt |
| Serve With: Loma Gorda |
| This is my takeoff on lamb with mint jelly. They are so good it’s almost a shame to serve them as an appetizer. For an entrée, add a nice green or bitter salad along with some of my Crispy White Beans with Chili Oil for a nice textural crunch. (Recipe available at www.napastyle.com). |
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| Moules Marinere with Garlic Herb Butter
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| Serve With: Chateau La Tarciere, Muscadet Sevre et Maine |
| Mussels are all about freshness, freshness, freshness. Some of the best in this country come from Prince Edward Island in the northeast and from Penn Cove, in the northwest. Another option, take the wine to your favorite restaurant (perhaps a French brasserie) for some oysters on the half shell or even Moules and Frites (mussels and fries). |
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| Cavatelli with Bolognese Sauce |
| Serve With: Salice Salentino Riserva |
| If you can’t find ground veal, then substitute beef, turkey or use all pork. If you don’t have cavatelli in the pantry, use spaghetti or perhaps bucatini (thick spaghetti with a hole in the middle). Actually, any pasta works with this awesome sauce. |
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| Baby Back Ribs with Espresso BBQ Sauce |
| Serve With: Claudia Springs |
| Could there be anything better than having your family rave about your cooking? Try this recipe just the way it is written and sit back and enjoy the rave reviews! Visit www.napastyle.com for my Radicchio Slaw with Warm Honey Vinaigrette recipe. |
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| Bistecca with Balsamic-Roasted Onion Crostini |
| Serve With: X Winery |
| To cook the meat in the shortest amount of time and thus extract the most flavors, the meat must be at room temperature. Afterward, the meat must rest before carving. If this procedure is followed, the carving knife glides right through the steak. For the Crostini use: 1 loaf crusty bread, sliced into 1/2-inch slices. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle on salt and freshly ground black pepper, bake in oven on cookie sheet 8-9 minutes. |
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| Wine-Braised Short Ribs |
| Serve With: Rocca dei Mori |
| I was looking for a way to cook short ribs until perfectly tender without having the meat fall apart. As I discovered over many tries, brining is the answer; it firms the meat enough to keep it on the bone and adds flavor, too. Visit www.napastyle.com for my Definitive Mashed Potato recipe. |
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| Grilled Gaucho Steak with Chimichurri Sauce |
| Serve With: Doña Paula, Estate |
| Our Chimichurri Sauce recipe can be found at www.napastyle.com and is a great sauce or condiment (just think of it like an Argentinean “pesto”) to so many foods, be it meat, fish, poultry or vegetables. It can even be used for a salad dressing. It is just that good and so versatile. |
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| Baby Back Ribs with Espresso BBQ Sauce |
| Serve With: Fairview, Pinotage |
| Could there be anything better than having your family rave about your cooking? Try this recipe just the way it is written and sit back and enjoy the rave reviews! Visit www.napastyle.com for our Radicchio Slaw with Warm Honey Vinaigrette recipe. |
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| Forever Roasted Lamb |
| Serve With: MonteLomas, Cabernet Sauvignon |
| I call this “Forever Roasted Lamb” because it takes (almost) forever to roast, about eight hours. The meat is well seasoned and cooked in a slow oven until it is so tender it shreds. Once it’s done, I challenge you not to stand at the kitchen counter and pick. Visit the recipe page at www.napastyle.com for my Fagioli all’ Uccelletto recipe. |
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| Spuma di Tonno |
| Serve With: Bodega Lurton, Pinot Gris |
| This smooth tuna spread is incredibly simple, yet enjoys great depth of flavor. Everybody who tastes it asks for the recipe.
It is a variation from Franco Colombani of Del Sole, a restaurant outside Milan. I usually serve it with grissini (breadsticks)
Or crostini to spread it on. You can double the recipe easily, and believe me, it will disappear fast. To dress spuma up for
a special occasion, put it in an attractive crock and top it with a slice of truffle. |
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| Tomato Steak with Baked Goat Cheese and Herb Salad |
| Serve With: i Colombi |
| This salad looks best when the tomato slice and the goat cheese slice are about the same size. So if you can only find goat cheese in small logs, you may want to serve 2 goat cheese rounds to each diner and perch them on slices from small tomatoes. Be sure you take all the stems off the herbs carefully so your guests can enjoy just the soft leaves. |
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