Last week, Chef Matt was serving a dish of pappardelle pasta with braised rabbit, wild mushrooms, provolone picante, and shaved green onions.  This dish is packed with rich, savory flavors accented by little bursts of freshness from herbs and shaved green onions.  The cheese, Mandarone Provolone, is a three year aged provolone cheese made in the mountainous Varese province of Northern Italy.  It’s nothing like the common provolone cheese found in most delis. Mandarone Provolone is much dryer, nuttier, sharper, and way more complex and delicious than any run of the mill deli provolone.

Hand Cut Pappardelle- braised rabbit, mushroom, Provolone Mandarone Pairing- Shinn Estate Vineyards Pinot Blanc, N. Fork NY ‘13 – photo by JWessel Photography

In spite of not wanting to be too “matchy matchy” with the wine pairing, I decided to go against the grain on this one. The wine is Shinn Estate Vineyards Pinot Blanc from the North Fork of Long Island. This is a very cool wine! It’s unique because it is fermented in open barrels. This open exposure allows the juice to oxidize slightly, taking on a nutty flavor similar to that of an oloroso sherry.  

The body is rich and almost unctuous, just like the rich pasta. There is a touch of refreshing acidity to contrast the fat in the dish.  But, rather than pair this dish with something full of tropical notes, like a big new world Chardonnay, thus adding flavor contrasts, we decided to go with something that has just as much savory flavor as the food. And here you have this beautiful, nutty, herbaceous Pinot Blanc.  

There are subtle contrasting flavors in the food and the wine.  But the primary flavors are all very savory.  But what’s not to love about that?  It’s a very “comfort food” approach to food and wine pairing.  Savory flavors remind me of my mother’s cooking.  Salisbury steak, meatloaf, buttered noodles, and lots of gravy; these are all delicious and all very straightforward in their savory flavors.  The same idea works with this food and wine pairing.  

The nutty, savory flavors in the wine give the flavors in the food an added kick of savory deliciousness.  The complexity that comes from the combined food and wine is subtle.  There are faint apricot flavors in the wine that are so subtle and delicate.  These flavors are where the contrast and variation come into play.  The fruit and juiciness in the wine add another dimension to the entire experience.  The overall experience is death by savory. However, if that is to be my fate, then I will surely die happy and satiated.  

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This week’s food and wine pairing focuses on one of summer’s most delicious treasures; the melon. Its succulently sweet flesh and perfumy aroma sets the perfect backdrop for another of the food world’s most delicious offerings; ham! The combination of sweet, juicy melon and salty, fatty ham is truly a magical experience for the mouth. This combination is classic, and for good reason, it’s freaking delicious!

Compressed Melons- whipped ricotta, shiso, salty ham, radish, cucumber, garden herbs Pairing- Heinz Eifel Riesling Spätlese, Mosel, DE ’11

Executive Chef Matt Varga prepared a salad of various melons with salty ham, whipped ricotta, cucumbers, and garden herbs. It’s featured as the first course on the current chef’s tasting menu.

When thinking about wines to pair with specific dishes, there are rules to follow. Are the food and wine balanced in body, acidity, intensity of flavor, and sweetness? If not, something is going to overwhelm the other. Also, are the flavors complementary without being too matchy-matchy? A wine pairing must be refreshing after a bite of food but do so without upsetting the flavors in the food. The food should play off the wine in an equally beautiful way. It’s a balancing act and when it is done right, everything tastes better and everything makes sense.

The flavors in this dish are very straight forward. Salty ham and fruity melon are accented with the subtle flavors of fresh mint and hyssop, refreshing cucumber, and a creamyness from the ricotta. The flavors are so perfect together that the addition of a wine with too much contrast will overcomplicate the whole experience and literally leave an unpleasant taste in your mouth.

Choosing a wine 

What wine has enough sweetness, freshness, fruitiness, and juiciness to refresh the palate after a bite of this already refreshing salad? Well, Riesling, obviously. And not just any riesling, seek out a German Spatlese Riesling. The term “spatlese” denotes the ripeness of the grapes when they are harvested. A German Spatlese Riesling is sweet but not so sweet that you should reserve it exclusively for dessert. They bridge the gap between dry wines and dessert wines. This level of sweetness makes them a perfect pairing for foods that similarly live somewhere between sweet and savory.

When I drink the wine with the food, the wine acts as sort of a dressing for the salad. The German Spatlese Riesling is tart and bursting with flavors of grapefruit, yuzu, and a beautiful underlying minerality that balances out the fruit flavor with a clean flinty finish. This minerality adds a subtle extra layer to the flavor profile of the wine taking it from basic and straight forward fruity to dynamic and complex.

That flinty, slate, wet river rock minerality also enhances the melon in the same way it does the fruit flavor in the wine. It does not overwhelm the delicious flavor of the melon, rather, another subtle layer of flavor adds a delicate complexity to the entire experience. The citrus flavors in the wine add an extra burst of freshness to the flavors of the melon. Again, the wine doesn’t overpower the food, instead, the flavors in the dish are enhanced by the wine.

Balancing the German Spatlese Riesling

It is important to keep the sweetness level of the wine balanced with the sugar in the food. Otherwise, one will seem incredibly sweet and the other will seem nearly flavorless. Balance is key.

There is more to this salad than melon so the other components must also be given an opportunity to sing. This is where contrasting flavors come into play. The ham adds a saltiness and savory flavor, while the herbs bring a pop of freshness and complexity. The wine then adds another level of complexity that enhances the flavors in everything.

Compressed Melons- whipped ricotta, shiso, salty ham, radish, cucumber, garden herbs Pairing- Heinz Eifel Riesling Spätlese, Mosel, DE ’11

When you reflect on your favorite flavor combinations, there is a balance of flavors that creates complexity and makes the food interesting and delicious. Bar­b­eque, for example, combines the sweetness and tang of the sauce, the smoke from the fire, and the savory flavor of the meat to create a deliciously complex balancing act of perfection.

Chocolate and sea salt is another example, this time there is bitterness, saltiness, and sweetness. It’s all about contrasting just the right amount to create an end product that is interesting and delicious. The examples are as limitless as delicious foods.

This is a call to everyone to think about what you drink with your food. A little bit of extra thought and planning will enhance your dining experience. It will help you to explore wines and or foods that you might not consider as part of your culinary repertoire. Explore, grow, learn, excite and enjoy.

The post German Spatlese Riesling: Delightful with Summer Salad first appeared on Gracie's Providence.

The post German Spatlese Riesling: Delightful with Summer Salad appeared first on Gracie's Providence.

At Gracie’s, one of our featured dinner choices is the five or seven-course chef’s tasting menu. Our guests can enhance their dining experience with the addition of wines selected specifically to complement the food. Wine and food pairings are an excellent way to try new flavor combinations, and the results can take your dining experience to a new level of enjoyment.

Photo by JWessel Photography

What comes first, though? There is no right or wrong way to start the process. We are all in favor of planning a meal around a great bottle of wine. However, Gracie’s Beverage Director, Jason Wessel (who is also the featured artist on many of the photos on this blog) prefers to start with the food. In this video from Steer Films, Jason discusses his approach to wine and food pairings.

Do you have a favorite approach to wine and food pairings? Let us know in the comments!

https://vimeo.com/95912123

The post Wine and Food Pairings first appeared on Gracie's Providence.

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If you have looked at the menus or websites for many high end restaurants, you have probably noticed that most of them offer a tasting menu. For the adventurous, ordering dinner without regard to what might arrive to your table could be great. Even for the less curious, most restaurants can accommodate allergies or a dietary preference and still offer a tasting menu. However, ordering dinner at a restaurant, and not knowing in advance what you might be eating, is taking a big leap of faith. This is especially true if you have never dined at a restaurant. Hopefully, we can shed some light on the question, “What is a tasting menu?”

As the name implies, a tasting menu is a selection of several dishes, usually in a series of 5, 7, or up to 10 courses. At Gracie’s, we offer a 5 and 7-course tasting menu. These courses change weekly, and are often based on seasonality, and what is available from our local vendors. The portions of each dish are smaller than a regular entree, but are quite filling when you consider that the tasting menu is, in essence, several smaller portioned entrees, and also includes complimentary bread.

Focaccia and Honey Beer Bread – photo by JWessel Photography

What is a Tasting Menu AND What Does It Look Like?

You’ve made the decision to try the tasting menu. Great! Now what? Assuming you have ordered the 7-course tasting menu, your dinner will start with a cold dish – usually a salad, though this can vary quite a bit. This week, our starter is a dish of Nantucket Bay Scallops, with persimmon, breakfast radish, orange, watercress, and sorrel.

photo by JWessel photography

The second course is a pasta or soup. Pictured here is Parsnip soup, with marcona almond angolotti, whipped maple, asian pear, and pancetta.

photo by JWessel Photography

Photo by JWessel Photography

Photo by JWessel Photography

The third course in the 7-course tasting is Foie Gras. Here we have Hudson Valley Foie Gras, with sesame crust, soy glazed carrot, beet pickled ginger, rice crackers, and trumpet mushrooms. In the 5-course tasting, this course is omitted, and your next dish would be a fish entree.

Photo by JWessel Photography

For the fourth course in the 7-course tasting menu, fish is served. Here we have local Monkfish, with  house-cured bacon, sweet potato, braised red cabbage, and cabbage sprouts.

Photo by JWessel Photography

Following your fish entree, a meat dish will arrive at your table. Pictured here is venison, with juniper, salsify, apple, crispy wild rice, squash, and brussel sprouts.

Photo by JWessel Photography

In the 7-course tasting menu, the meat is followed by a cheese plate, then dessert. In a 5-course tasting menu, you go from meat, straight to dessert. Here we have Angelito Mousse with sunflower seed crust, molasses candied black currants, carrot cake, and carrot sherbet.

Photo by JWessel Photography

The tasting menu can also be paired with wines that are chosen to complement the flavors on your plate. At Gracie’s, we also offer a vegetarian tasting menu, and can work with you to accommodate allergies or dietary preferences. So if someone asks, what is a tasting menu? Now you know, and I don’t know about you, but I am feeling a bit hungry. Join us at Gracie’s for dinner Tuesdays through Saturdays by calling 401.272.7811 to reserve your seat at the table.

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“How can a nation be called great if its bread tastes like kleenex? – Julia Child 

Photo by Jason Wessel

The story of bread and baking becomes complicated around the time of the Industrial Revolution. Advances in technology led to changes in production methods of bread, and even in farming and cultivation of wheat. Social changes abounded, as well; more people were engaged in factory and production work leaving less time for baking and cooking at home.

Gradual changes in farming and agricultural technology paved the way for more commercial production of food items. In the early 1900’s, large tractors began to work alongside horses on expansive farms of the Great Plains. By the mid-1950’s, tractors outnumbered horses, and modern irrigation systems helped mitigate the effects of drought. These advances in technology and efficiency allowed fewer farms to produce more goods. While the benefits and drawbacks of this change could be debated, there is little question that these changes allowed for more commercial production of food in a prosperous, post-war nation that was primed for convenience.

On the production side of the equation, the older method of stone grinding wheat was replaced with much faster steel rollers. These steel rollers were more consistent, and could produce much finer flour that was compatible with mechanized bread production. There were new machines that could knead, weigh, and shape loaves of bread, then slice and package them. Joseph Lee of Boston developed and patented one of the first mechanized bread making machines in the early 1900’s.

Rohwedder’s Bread Slicing Machine – photo by The Smithsonian Institute

In 1928, Otto Frederick Rohwedder finalized production of a bread-slicing and packaging machine. He sold the first slicer to the Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri, which sold Kleen Maid Sliced Bread. A massive marketing campaign by competitor Wonder Bread a few years later, and the mass production of toasters, ensured Rohwedder’s success with his invention. Rohwedder sold the rights to his invention to the Micro-Westco Company during the Great Depression; however, they hired him as a vice-president and sales manager. The “father of sliced bread” created an iconic American food that is still widely sold today.

Nearly 100 years after Joseph Lee’s invention, the one-loaf bread maker became a household appliance, and sliced bread can be found on shelves at grocery stores or gas station convenience centers. Americans today consume approximately 200 pounds per person of grains and cereals each year, as compared to 150 pounds in the 1950’s. Flower Foods, which owns both Wonder and Sunbeam breads, had sales of 3.1billion dollars in 2012, and according to the American Institute of Baking, Wonder and Sunbeam sold over 150million loaves of bread that year.

Until a few years ago, hand made bread was considered an artifact, and stone ground flour can still be difficult to find. Yet our love of bread has not diminished. Those four simple ingredients have paralleled human history, they have sustained us, been a catalyst for social change, and have been subject to our advances. Those four simple ingredients; flour, water, yeast, and salt are as much a part of the human experience as the joy of a sunset or the iconic moments in history.

Photo by Jason Wessel

The post The History of Bread Part 3 first appeared on Gracie's Providence.

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There is something about the aroma of baking bread that is warm, cozy, and inviting. One of my favorite times of day is when I walk into Ellie’s early in the morning, and smell the bread rising or already in the oven. With our hands and four simple ingredients (flour, water, salt, and yeast) we can make one of the oldest and most communal foods; a food enjoyed by our ancestors, used as currency, and even sent to the tombs of Egyptian royalty.

This pure and simple and elegant food is one of the delights we share between Ellie’s and Gracie’s. In fact, it was the bread that we serve at Gracie’s that became the starting point for Ellie’s! Complimentary bread has long been a staple of Gracie’s dinner service, and now that bread is baked at Ellie’s. But what is it about bread that binds us to our community and to our humanity? How does bread trigger such a positive reaction in so many people?

Bread is our connection to our past; it is one of the oldest foods made by modern humans. Estimates vary, but most archaeologists and food historians would agree that humans have been making bread for over 10,000 years, and maybe even 30,000 years. The earliest breads were unleavened, similar to a flatbread such as a tortilla or naan. Occasionally, wild yeast would “contaminate” the bread, resulting in a fermented bread. This fermented bread eventually became the early incarnation of many modern breads.

The Egyptians mastered the process of making leavened breads and controlling the introduction of yeast approximately 7,000 years ago, and archaeological evidence suggests that Egypt had dedicated bread bakeries approximately 5,000 years ago.  It is also believed that Egyptian bakers experimented with sourdough breads by saving sections of particularly good doughs to add to the next day’s batch.

The History of Bread will continue in part 2.

The post The History of Bread first appeared on Gracie's Providence.

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The skill of bread baking passed quickly from Egypt to the Greek and Roman empires. The production of bread remained largely unchanged for centuries until the Industrial Revolution. The social implications of bread production and availability, however, played important roles in society throughout much of the intermediate times.

Among other social issues, a shortage of food and affordable bread is often cited as one of the catalysts of the French Revolution (1789 – 1799). The women’s march to Versailles, on October 5, 1789, was the culmination of anger and frustration over the scarceness and high prices of bread. Over 20,000 French peasants, mostly women, demanded better conditions and bread prices. King Louis XVI had little choice but to concede.

When Napoleon Bonaparte seized power in 1799, his government created specific standards for French bread, which included ingredients, weights, and baking procedures; he also took measures to stabilize grain prices. An even older law in England, the Assize of Bread and Ale, dates to 1266. This law dictated that bread weighs 400 grams, or multiples thereof. Only recently has this law been overturned.

The phrase “baker’s dozen” stems from these and similar laws. In an effort to ensure that breads met weight requirements, bakeries would regularly add an extra loaf of bread with each dozen sold. This was likely a consequence of self-preservation as much as anything. The penalties for selling underweight bread in medieval England could range from fines to prison to the pillory.

Another indication of the social importance of bread is its appearance in folk tales, rituals, and superstitions.

• Stir bread away from you for good luck.
• Eating the crust of bread will give you curly hair.
• Placing a loaf of bread upside-down on a table will bring bad luck.
• Bread and baking is a central theme in the stories and games such as the Little Red Hen, Patty Cake, and Sing a Song of Sixpence.
• Elven Lembas bread is known to maintain freshness and be nutritious, but is not known for its flavor. It is the only known food to make the trek to Mordor.
• The phrase, “It’s the best thing since sliced bread!”

Many of these songs and tales followed bread and baking into our modern world, even as bread production itself changed drastically with the switch to automated and mechanized baking facilities. The history of bread will continue in part 3 with a look at “modern” bread and bakeries.

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