Chanterelle & Fava Tagliatelle

At the Farmers Market, as usual I was looking for something fresh and seasonal for dinner. I was at the Downtown Summerlin Farmers Market, strolling through the Intuitive Forager indoor produce market and Stu, the Produce Manager (and my go to guy for recipes) had introduced me to the Fava beans. These favas, while a little work, are fresh but warm and creamy, and they are a go. Tagliatelle (fresh if I can find it), is Stu’s suggestion for a pasta and we turn to Bonnie for advice on the mushrooms. The morels are beautiful, but better with a red meat (and I admit to being a little intimidated by them). We determine to go with the Chanterelles. So favas, chanterelles, in maybe a carbonnara or a little Burrata….? Maybe not so creamy, perhaps a little lemon or chicken stock and a little wine. Stu pulls fresh thyme and a branch of fresh pink peppercorns for me, my basket is full and I am off to put together this creation. First, to choose the wine, since we need to have it ready to include in the dish.

Mushrooms & pinot noir are a classic. The earthiness of the two meld perfectly. But my dish really wants a white wine. Lighter, springier, but still with a bit of warmth. I find suggestions for pairing a lightly oaked Chardonnay with Chanterelles. Chanterelles have a symbiotic relationship with oak trees. The mushrooms tap into the tree roots for nourishment and in turn provide the tree with minerals. So the oak on the wine and the oak in the mushrooms seem symbiotic for our pairing. Luckily, I had a 2012 Riverbench Estate Chardonnay from the Santa Maria Valley AVA in Santa Barbara. We picked this wine up when we did a Vineyard tour at Riverbench with the Vineyard Manager Rawley Hermreck, last year during the Santa Barbara Key to Wine Country Weekend. Enjoying a wine pulled from vineyards that we had walked through should just enhance the experience.

Tablas Creek Esprit Blanc 2012 Pairing with Cod, Clams & Roasted citrus avocado salad

I was going through our wine selection trying to find a wine that I could find a great pairing to go with. So I went through our Tablas Creek Wines. The great thing about Tablas is that they have a vintage chart on their site, so you can see which wines are ready to drink. Tablas Creek does mostly Rhone varieties in the French style, so most of their wines are meant to age. I found a 2012 Esprit de Tablas Blanc in the rack in the dining room that was ready to drink and found a recipe and pairing ideas on the Tablas site (yep, they usually have one or 2 recipes to pair with each of their wines, as well as some additional suggestions…it’s really foodie heaven).
There was a fish with fennel recipe and suggestions for citrus avocado salad, fish with tropical salsa and Mussels or clams cooked in butter and wine. We determined we would do the citrus avocado salad, fish with tropical salsa and the clams.