If you only know Seghesio for its Zinfandel wines, summer is the perfect time to try its Vermentino.
2018 Seghesio Family Vineyards Vermentino
I’ve long been a fan of Seghesio Family Vineyards’ Zinfandel wines, so elegant and concentrated in deep berry flavors with often a back note of cocoa.
In 2008, it started planting more Italian white varietals in its Russian River vineyards, including Vermentino, a grape that traditionally grows near the Ligurian Sea.
I had a chance to try a sample bottle of the 2018 release ($24), which garnered 90 points from Wine Enthusiast.
Just turn on the burner to warm the cumin-mustard seed-scented oil for this carrot salad. That’s all the cooking required.
When the day brings a record-setting scorcher, what better way to cool off and still ignite the taste buds than with a veggie salad full of delicious warming spices?
“Tadka Carrot Salad with Cumin, Coriander & Mustard Seed Dressing” is the simplest of recipes that delivers all of that.
Teeny crisp, fried lentils aim to be the next snack sensation.
They have the hard crackling crunch of miniature corn nuts. And a great roasty, toasty, nutty, and earthy taste.
Mighty Lil’ Lentils is a new plant-based snack made from lentils that are crisped up in safflower or sunflower oil, then salted and dusted with other flavorings.
It’s the newest product from Seapoint Farms, the California company that’s the largest importer and manufacturer in the United States of edamame.
The company is now turning its attention to lentils, the tiny legumes that are a good source of protein and fiber.
Handmade pastas you can’t wait to twirl a fork into. Pizzas that make you lunge for a slice. An impressive Italian wine list. And creative cocktails that always put you in a peppy mood.
Vina Enoteca has long been one of my favorite Italian restaurants because it offers all of that with aplomb.
Ordering online is a breeze, as is parking when you pick up your order. These days, there’s plenty of open parking slots in the adjacent lot behind the Stanford Shopping Center. Walk up to the host stand outside to pick it all up.
A simple cacio e pepe, made more special with a Parmigiano crisp on top.
My husband can never resist a pizza topped with prosciutto. The Pizza Emiliana ($22) is like the super-model version of that.
Moist and fluffy from ricotta and olive oil, these incredible muffins get crowned with a honey-drizzled fig half.
If you’re blessed with your own backyard fig tree, you never have this problem.
But for those of us who are left with buying fresh figs at the market or through grocery delivery services these days, figs can be a bit confounding. You want them squishy-ripe so they’re at their sweetest — yet that’s also when they’re prone to go moldy in a flash. If you happen to find yourself with ones that are not soft at all, you wait with bated breath, checking them each day, in hopes that they will finally yield to the push of a fingertip.
But you realize soon enough that’s all in vain because figs actually don’t ripen much once they are picked. And if they are picked too early, forget about it.
However, less than ideal figs can be salvaged by baking or roasting them. Their natural sugars, no matter how modest, will exude and caramelize in the heat of an oven, rendering them enjoyable after all.
That’s what prompted me to bake a batch of “Ricotta and Olive Oil Muffins with Figs.”
This wonderful recipe more than rescued my less-than-perfect figs. It’s from the cookbook, “365: A Year of Everyday Cooking and Baking” (Prestel, 2019) by James Beard Award-winning Meike Peters, a food writer who splits her time between Berlin and Malta.
(Mobius), of which I received a review copy.
(Prestel, 2019) by James Beard Award-winning