Always Ravenous

Italian Sausage Ravioli Paired with Barbera d’Alba – Northern Italian Wine Journey #3

August 16, 2025 By Jane 4 Comments

Italian Sausage Ravioli paired with Barbera d’Alba. Barbera is one of Italy’s most planted grape varieties, with most plantings in Piemonte. The Barbera d’Alba DOC includes the town of Alba and extends on both sides of the Tanaro River and the surrounding Langhe hills. Agnolotti del Plin is a local specialty, fresh pasta filled with roasted meats. I took a variation and paired the Pio Cesare Barbera d’Alba with Italian Sausage Ravioli and a Sugo Finto (meatless tomato and vegetable sauce). A classic wine pairing, what grows together goes together….

Chicken Enchiladas and Tomatillo Sauce Paired with Gavi – Northern Italian Wine Journey #2

July 9, 2025 By Jane 1 Comment

Chicken Enchiladas and Tomatillo Sauce paired with Gavi made from the Cortese grape, one of Italy’s prominent white grape varieties. The Gavi DOCG, the most important appellation for the Cortese grape, lies in the southeast corner of Piemonte in the province of Alessandria. A small area of the DOCG borders Liguria to the south. According to “The Oxford Companion to Wine,” by Jancis Robinson, “Gavi was initially produced to serve the fish restaurants of Genoa and the Liguria coast.” While Gavi is an excellent pairing with fish, I paired the Picollo Ernesto Gavi del Comune di Gavi Rovereto with Chicken Enchiladas and Tomatillo Sauce….

Northern Italian Wine (and Food Pairing) Journey- Roero Arneis

June 1, 2025 By Jane Leave a Comment

I’m on a journey to learn more about Italian wines, starting in Northern Italy. My goal is not only the wine adventure, but also to share what I discover along the way. To learn more about wine is to drink it and enjoy it with food around a table with family and friends. Diving deeper into wine — knowing where it is grown, how it is produced, and the people who craft it gives us a greater understanding and connection to what’s in the glass.

A quote from Rowan Jacobsen, an American Writer, I came across in Karen MacNeil’s The Wine Bible perfectly highlights how I feel about wine.

“Wine trains us to think about the natural world and how place, time, people, and experience are powerfully connected. That’s how meaning is created.”

Come with me and explore the amazing world of wine beyond what’s just in the glass….

Turkey Sweet Potato Chili Paired with Côte de Brouilly Beaujolais

January 31, 2025 By Jane 1 Comment

Chasing the winter blues away with a bowl of Turkey Sweet Potato Chili paired with Côte de Brouilly Beaujolais. It’s that time of year when I step outside and exclaim, “Baby, it’s so cold out here!” I just want to hibernate inside and cook up some comforting food. So how do you get the “comfort” without the heavy, weighty feeling of comfort food? Turkey Sweet Potato Chili is a lighter version of a traditional chili, substituting ground turkey for beef and adding good-for-you ingredients like sweet potatoes, quinoa, cilantro, and black beans. What better wine to pair this lightened-up chili than a low-tannin, fruity, and spicy Beaujolais Cru like Château Thivin Côte de Brouilly. As Karen MacNeil says, ” Beaujolais is fruit and joy.”…

Mushroom Goat Cheese Pasta Paired with Tatomer Grüner Veltliner/Riesling

October 6, 2024 By Jane 4 Comments

Mushroom Goat Cheese Pasta is the kind of food I want as summer has faded to fall. The temperatures don’t always reflect that seasonal change here in the south, but my mindset is firmly moving to the foods of fall.

I received an advance copy of “A Couple Cooks: 100 Recipes to Cook Together” by Sonja and Alex Overhiser of the food blog “A Couple Cooks.” I sampled a handful of recipes, but this mushroom pasta inspired me as fall sets in and summer lingers. While the mushrooms and pasta acknowledge the fall season, the goat cheese and white wine pairing still give a nod to those southern “summer” temperatures….

Hans Wirsching Silvaner Brut with Appetizers

Last Fall, I returned to a wine region I once called home, Franken (Franconia in English). I lived in Würzburg, the heart of the Franken wine-growing region. Here, steep hillside vineyards overlook the Main River. It is in Franken that my appreciation and love of wine began. Franken wines left a lasting impression on my…

Summer Roasted Vegetables and Socca Paired with Provence Rosé

Close your eyes and image it is August and you are in Provence. What do you see, smell, taste, and hear? I see fields of sunflowers, groves of olive trees, vineyards, and overflowing stands of vegetables at farmer’s markets. I smell fragrant aromas of thyme, rosemary, lavender and the salty air of the Mediterranean Sea….

Sometimes, but not always, I lean more toward drinking white wine. Lately, a glass of white wine is in my hand. Maybe it’s the sweltering temperatures many of us are coming off of from the month of July. When Robin of Crushed Grape Chronicles challenged the Wine Pairing Weekend group of writers to create “Unexpected White…

Nicolas-Jay Pinot Noir Paired with Salmon Cakes

Nicolas-Jay is the collaboration between two friends who love Pinot Noir. Jean-Nicolas Méo, owner and winemaker of Méo-Camuzet in the Côte D ‘Or, and Jay Boberg, music entrepreneur, and passionate oenophile, are cofounders of Nicolas-Jay. Their mutual interest in Oregon Pinot Noirs would eventually lead them to a partnership in the Nicolas-Jay Estate with the…

Italian Sausage Ravioli Paired with Barbera d’Alba – Northern Italian Wine Journey #3

Chicken Enchiladas and Tomatillo Sauce Paired with Gavi – Northern Italian Wine Journey #2

Northern Italian Wine (and Food Pairing) Journey- Roero Arneis

Turkey Sweet Potato Chili Paired with Côte de Brouilly Beaujolais

Mushroom Goat Cheese Pasta Paired with Tatomer Grüner Veltliner/Riesling

Wine and Food Notes from Franken Germany

A Taste of Provence: Food and Wine Pairings

Lamb Curry Paired with Viognier

For the Love of Pinot Noir: An American-French Partnership in Oregon

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