Rachael Ray
From Every Day with Rachael Ray
February-March 2006
A wedding to remember -- and a Tuscan feast for all
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Click on the recipes below to see what was
served at the wedding.
Wilted Spinach with Currants and Pine Nuts
Artichoke Pecorino Flan
Sliced Steak with Brunello Sauce
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MONTALCINO VINO
At around $20 a bottle, Rosso di Montalcino saves you big buckaroos: It's a cheaper alternative to Brunello, especially when you're cooking. I call it "baby Brunello" because it's just a younger version, made from the same grape.
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SPLURGE
Marchesi de' Frescobaldi CastelGiocondo Brunello di Montalcino 2000 (Italy, $60)
STEALS
Castello Banfi Rosso di Montalcino 2003 (Italy, $22)
Argiano Rosso di Montalcino 2004 (Italy, $25)
Col d'Orcia Rosso di Montalcino 2003 (Italy, $19) |
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My husband John's first word as a baby was "More!" He was shouting for his parents to play more music. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band had stopped turning on the record player, and he wasn't pleased.
My first word was "Vino!" or wine. My grandpa Emmanuel, so the story goes, was my frustrated babysitter. I didn't like formula and would bat my bottle away. He tired of chasing after it, so he replaced the formula with water and a few drops of his homemade wine. Presto! Quiet, good baby with rosy cheeks goes to sleep. He must have held up my bottle and called "Vino! Vino!" because one night, in my high chair hooked onto the dinner table, I reached out for my bottle with my hand in the air as if making a toast and belted out, "Vino!"
Put together "More!" and "Vino!" and you get "More wine!" So John and I got married in Italy at the home of our favorite wine, Brunello di Montalcino. On a trip to Tuscany, my mom and Aunt Chee Chee fell upon the perfect setting for the wedding, Castello di Velona. Then my mom and our good friend Gloria Gilman (she's like another aunt to me), together with John, planned every crazy, intricate detail involved in getting married in a foreign country. They planned a wedding beyond any dream in the most beautiful spot I've ever seen.
A cozy, peaceful place, the castle has beautiful 360-degree views. From every location you look out over cultivated, manicured land, dotted with grapevines. Each morning, hundreds of darting, soaring swallows sing arias. The air smells sweet and rich. Everything you see, taste and feel seems more intense here.
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Party Time
To plan the wedding dinner, Mom and Gloria made a list of their favorite dishes, and John and I were supposed to make the cuts. At our prewedding feast at the castle, we tasted three appetizers: tomatoes stuffed with eggplant caponata, artichoke flan and pappa al pomodoro (bread and tomato soup). We loved each one and decided to serve them all!
Tuscany is all about deep, woodsy flavors, so for the next course, we chose handmade pasta (you gotta have pasta at an Italian wedding, right?) stuffed and topped with wild mushrooms. For the entrée, we decided on beef with Brunello sauce—the wine of Montalcino and our favorite. The cake was to be a surprise—and it was!
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