June 2024 Food Pairing

June 2024 Wine club release and food pairing

Cotes du Ombre paired with Green Goddess Gnocchi and Tempranillo paired with bacon cheddar beef sliders

Côtes du Ombré paired with Green Goddess Gnocchi

Our Côtes du Ombré is definitely a fan favorite here at Shadow Ranch. A blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre, you might typically see this wine called a Côtes du Rhône, meaning “sides of the Rhône”, a major wine region in France. It is also often referred to simply as a “GSM” referring to its three component wines. We call ours Côtes du Ombré because ombré is French for shade or shadow, so it is our own little play on words for the Shadow Ranch version of a Côtes du Rhône.

The Côtes du Ombré has delicious fresh fruit characteristics such as plum, strawberry and cherry. It is a very bright wine with relatively low acidity and tannins. We chose the Green Goddess Gnocchi for our pairing in part thanks to the freshness of the herbs in the green goddess sauce. We found that the herbaceous nature of the dressing balanced will with the fruit of the wine. The key to this recipe is definitely the use of fresh herbs! Dried herbs will not do this recipe justice. We pulled this recipe from delish.com. Normally Tricia will doctor a recipe up a bit, but she said in this case she loved it as is! Overall it is a very easy recipe to prepare and a perfect as a summer side dish or as a main!

Ingredients:

• Kosher salt
• 8 oz. crème fraiche
• ½ cup fresh dill
• ½ cup fresh basil
• ¼ cup fresh tarragon
• ¼ cup sliced fresh chives
• ½ lemon, juiced
• 2 cups chopped asparagus
• 2 cups sugar snap peas
• 16 oz. fresh gnocchi
• Finely grated parmesan for serving

Instructions:

1. Boil salted water. In a separate bowl prepare an ice bath.
2. In a food processor, blend together the crème fraiche, dill, basil, tarragon, chives, lemon juice and a dash of salt.
3. Blanch the asparagus and snap peas by dunking them for two minutes in boiling water, then transfer to ice bath, keeping the boiling water.
4. Cook the gnocchi in your boiling water until they float. Reserve a half cup of pasta water.
5. Add pasta water to your green goddess dressing 1 tablespoon at a time and blend until silky.
6. Combine gnocchi, asparagus and snap peas and green goddess sauce and serve with asprinkle of parmesan.

Tempranillo Paired with Bacon Cheddar Beef Sliders

Tempranillo wine tends to have more tannic structure to it with a heavier body and great fruit notes. This 2022 Tempranillo is deliciously smooth with notes of raspberry and a hint of lavender on the nose. This vintage is especially smooth, but its medium-to-heavy body lends it to pair will with richer cheeses and meats. For our June event we thought we’d give you a great recipe for grilling throughout the summer months! We landed on the bacon cheddar beef sliders for this pairing and it was incredibly popular. Tricia mixed the cooked bacon and cheddar cheese into the beef before grilling so that all the flavors could meld together. Check out the recipe below!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Ground beef, 88% lean
• ½ lb bacon, diced
• 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Mayonnaise
• Smoked paprika
• Mild BBQ sauce
• Slider buns

Instructions:

1. Fry bacon until just less than crispy.
2. Gently mix together shredded cheddar cheese, bacon, ground beef, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Form into small patties, roughly 2.5 inches across.
3. Make spread by mixing together mayonnaise and smoked paprika
4. Grill patties to your liking (we like medium rare).
5. Spread mayonnaise mixture on one bun and BBQ sauce on the other. Assemble and serve!