Yummy Fungi and Merlot

Saturday, Noel and I were in Russo's getting our weekly produce. Noel asked if I wanted to get any pasta they sell. I was shocked when she said ok to mushroom ravioli. I love mushrooms!! Noel, not so much. I knew I had to make a meal that would help the mushrooms be a background taste. I decided to add thin steaks, and roasted brussel sprouts. What a meal!!

I did have to come up with a sauce for the mushroom ravioli. I found on food.com a great cream sauce with Marsala. I love Marsala, most people think it's only a cooking wine, but it is a great after dinner wine too. This sauce was so easy to make and helped make this meal outstanding. Perfect for this meal. To start you need to saute a small diced onion and three cups of mushrooms for about three minutes. When we were at Russo's, I grabbed baby shiitake mushrooms for the dinner. YUMMY!!! After the room smells of mushrooms cooked with onions (about 3 minutes) you add 1 1/3 cup Marsala. I used real Marsala for this recipe, there are "cooking" Marsala's but what fun is that? You would never want to drink that after the recipe was done. After you boil the mushroom/Marsala mix for four minutes you need to add 1 1/3 cup heavy cream and 1/8 cup milk and heat until warm. Salt and pepper to taste and serve over the ravioli. This sauce came out amazing!! I even made sure to pour a little on top of the steaks and brussel sprouts.

The wine was easy to pick. My buddy, Mike from Peirano Estate, was out in the market two weeks ago. I love this estate, especially their Merlot. It comes from 6 clones, 3 from California, Italian clone #9, and from Bordeaux clone 181 and 134. Don't tell anyone but I heard the owner was at Petus and found clone 181 on the ground and pocketed it. What a bad ass!!! This Merlot is great. So many people over look Merlot. Sure it's not the most exciting grape, but give it to the right wine maker and you get a fantastic wine. This wine has a beautiful bouquet of cherries and blackberries in cream. The palate is a wonderful array of flavors. The plum, cherries and cranberry notes help welcome this old friend back into your life. What a great pairing with this meal.