Fashion has all sorts of silly rules. ‶No white after Labor Day″ used to be scripture for appropriate dress. Even Vogue put that outdated idea to rest. Equally ridiculous is the idea that all the bottles of rosé must go back into the cellar once that September turning point arrives.
Balderdash!
As fans of rosé as the kinder, gentler red, we think autumn is a truly splendid time to indulge. In fact, rosé wines are a perfect pairing with dishes that celebrate the end-of-summer, advent-of-fall harvest season.
We recently got our hands on a delightful Languedoc wine from Lorgeril (lorgeril.wine) called Ô de Rosé. It’s an interesting blend of 60% Grenache, 30% Syrah, and 10% Viognier that’s harvested at daybreak when the vineyards are cool and lightly pressed to yield a very fresh wine with a powdery pink tint.
To be candid, we were predisposed to like the wine because it came with a silicon-lined glass stopper — a brilliant marketing touch that immediately suggests a premium product. At around $20 a bottle, Ô de Rosé is not a super-refined, elegant rosé. But it is a very good, very tasty rosé with a bit of red currant on the nose and lychee and grapefruit on the palate. And it’s such a good buy that we don’t mind serving it with a casual meal. That makes it perfect for a fall dish we call ‶cheeseball risotto,″ created initially to deal with a surplus of cherry tomatoes. The recipe is below. Crack open a bottle of Ô de Rosé and see for yourself.
Cheeseball risotto
2 dinner servings
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes
- ½ cup chopped fresh basil
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 2½ cups chicken stock
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- ½ cup finely chopped onion
- 1 cup Arborio rice
- ⅓ cup dry white wine
- 24 fresh mozzarella pearls
- 2 tablespoons grated Romano cheese
Drop cherry tomatoes into pot of boiling water. Remove after 20 seconds to bowl of ice water. Using a very sharp knife, pierce each tomato near the stem point and peel off the skin. (If you become adept, you can squeeze out the tomato.) Collect tomatoes in a bowl. Add basil, 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt, and garlic. Set aside.
Bring stock to a simmer and keep warm.
Heat 2 teaspoons olive oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté for 3 minutes. Stir in rice and stir to coat. Add wine and cook until liquid is almost absorbed. Add broth, half a cup at a time, stirring constantly. When one addition is nearly absorbed, add next (about 25 minutes total).
Add tomato mixture and cook 2 minutes more. Remove from heat and spoon into large bowls. Arrange a dozen mozzarella pearls on surface of mounded risotto and sprinkle with Romano.