When it comes to pizza in addition
to the best and freshest ingredients (yes he makes his own pizza dough and
pizza sauce) he wanted to emulate the heat and flavor of a brick oven without
having to wait 6 hours for the oven to come up to heat. He wanted an oven that from the time he
lit it to the time he was eating his pizza would be less than one
hour. So he built his own with a
dual heat source, wood below and hot coal on top. The result is amazing. The oven heats up to 900º in no time
and cooks a perfect pizza in about 2 minutes. In fact, he lit the oven at 12:45 and by 1:15 he had cooked
3 pizzas that we devoured with gusto.
He tops his pizza with an uncooked pizza sauce made with San Marzano
Tomatoes, Mpzzarella di Bufala, Sea Salt, fresh Basil and Extra Virgin Olive
Oil. Click here for a video of Nick and the oven in action.
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| Nick's Pizza |
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| 2011 Clos Ste Magdeleine |
With
the pizza I brought along a bottle of 2011 Clos Ste Magdeleine Rosé
from from Cassis, a commune located in Provence, France just east of
Marseille. I learned of the wine
from Lettie Teague, wine columnist for the Wall Street Journal. As I had never heard of it, let alone experienced it, I searched and
found 11 bottles at Chambers Street Wines, NYC. I am glad I did, as the wine was fantastic.
Traditionally made, the wine is aged
for 7 – 12 months in stainless steel tanks, it was clean, crisp, and pure on
the palate with great complexity and balance and finished with a delicate
elegance. This is a stunning rosé, and while
a bit pricey at $30, it is the perfect summer wine. I also found some magnums of the 2010 vintage for $59 at 56º Wine,
Bearnardsville, NJ. Check out my blog on Rosé from last
year as well as Lettie’s latest WSJ article, Pluck a Summer Rosé for some other worthy rosés to add to your cellar for the summer.
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| Carol's Pasta e Fagioli |
Simple and delicious food and terrific wine
continued at dinnertime. I love Pasta
e Fagioli and my wife Carol makes a great one. We enjoyed it, along with some pork tenderloin sandwiches,
with another bottle of 2011 Clos Ste Magdeleine
Rosé and a bottle of 2001 Paolo
Bea Sagrantino di Montifalco. Located in Umbria, Italy, Paolo Bea crafts wines that are
the essence of old world magnificence.
Made from 100% Sagrantino grapes, the wine sees 12 months in steel, followed
by 24 months in large Slovanian oak barrels and 9 months of bottle age before being
released for sale. This bottle was magnificent. Decanted it for 2 hours, the
wine was earthy on the nose and palate with incredible purity and balance. It soared from the glass and danced on
the tongue, with each sip seemingly better than the previous one. The finish was lengthy with a magnificent roundness and elegance.
Talk about a wine with soul, it was here in spades. A couple of days later I had a bottle
of the 2004 vintage and it too was magnificent. The 2001 may be difficult to find, but the 2004 is available
at DeVino Wine Boutique, NYC and Pluckemin Inn Wine Shop, Bedminster, NJ at
abour $100.
I had a few other wines last week
that are also worth mentioning. 2008 Passopisciaro Guardiola made by Andrea
Franchetti is a delicious Chardonnay from Sicily that sees no oak in the
vinification process. The wine has a dazzling purity on the palate, with subtle
hints of bubble gum and a clean & lengthy finish. This is a Chardonnay where you taste the grape instead of the
barrel. The 2010 is currently
available at $40 from DeVino.
2006 Bornard Arbois Pupillin Melon
le Rouge Queue. I have mentioned
this wine crafted by Philippe Bornard in a previous post. From the Jura region
of France this beauty is a blend of Melon and Malbec grapes that together
produce a stunning wine that has wonderful complexity and balance and continues to
evolve in the glass during the course of sipping it. The wine is drinking beautifully at the moment and is a
bargain at $30. Chambers Street
Wines, NYC.
2004 La Stoppa Ageno is not a wine
for everyone. From the Emilia
Romangna region of Italy, it falls into the orange wine category due to its
yellow/orange hue. This wine, a
blend of Malvasia, Ortrugo and Trebbiano grapes. Winemaker Elena Pantaleoni lets the juice macerate with
the grape skins for an extended period (about one year). The resulting wine is
intensely flavored and fragrant, rich in color and taste. To be appreciated this is a white wine
that should be drunk at red wine temperature. This bottle, which is still drinking very well, had nice
acidity with a wonderful metallically finish. A wine with lots of soul. $35 at Vino Italian Wine, NYC.
Saluté
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