Spring Wine Dinner Inspired by Italy

I just recently returned from eight incredible days in Sicily and Rome. For those of you who know me well, you know that I have a deep and unwavering respect for simple food. Italy felt like simple, beautiful food Mecca. Don’t confuse simple with “simple.” It is so difficult to hide poor sourcing and poor technique when the food has less than five ingredients on a plate. I have deep admiration for this kind of cooking.   Sicily has been overthrown by every major empire since two A.D. Which lends itself to an interesting melting pot of people and cuisine. Similar to other places that have experienced imperialism, most of the delicious food is that of poor people who were forced to find unique and interesting ways to make modest ingredients delicious. Because of its Moorish influence and proximity to Africa, street food is king in Sicily. Pure heaven. Couple that with volcanic soil and climate that lends to beautifully mineral and complex wines of varietals I’ve never even heard of.    We have been planning for some time to do a spring wine dinner and I thought there was no better way to express my appreciation for the time that I spent in Italy then to try and pay homage to some of the dishes that I had there. Scheduled for Wednesday, March 18th at 7pm, I will try and re-create some of the magic that I had. While I’ll never fully be able to replicate the experience that I had there, I’m excited to try some new and interesting recipes. We are doing tastings now so that we can pair wines for each course. Keep an eye on our website for updates. 

Proposed working menu:

Rosemary Ham and Sheep’s Milk CheeseGrilled Sardines, Garlic OlivesChickpea Fritters, SesamePumpkin and Onion AgrodolceCacio e PepeMarscapone with RaspberriesWinesTBDExpect wine served in water glasses, not a lot of garnishes, and lots of laughter as we sup.