Today’s recipe has been translated from one of our favorite Italian food blogs, Shake and Bake by Gaia Borroni. This is the most recent entry in the Cantele Food Bloggers Project.
Buon appetito!
Stuffed Rabbit Roll
15-20 black olives, pitted
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 white onion, peeled and finely chopped
6 sage leaves, plus a few extra reserved
Parmigiano Regginao, as needed
½ lb. Italian sausage, casing removed and crumbled
1 whole rabbit (about 3 lbs), deboned
8 slices bacon
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup Chardonnay Teresa Manara 2010
salt
Prepare the stuffing by folding the olives, carrot, onion, sage, and Parmigiano Reggiano into the sausage. Mix well until all the ingredients are fully incorporated.
Open the rabbit like a book and then carefully spread the stuffing over the inside. Roll the rabbit and tie with cooking string. Arrange the bacon strips on top of the rabbit.
In a deep cast iron pan, heat the olive oil and brown the rabbit on all sides. When it is golden brown, deglaze with the wine. When the alcohol has evaporated, reduce heat and add the remaining sage leaves. Season with salt to taste, keeping in mind that the stuffing is already well seasoned and that the bacon will liquefy and be incorporated into the sauce. Cook over low heat for 40-45 minutes.
If overcooked, the rabbit will be stringy. In order to ensure that it will be tender and juicy, turn the rabbit every so often and baste with its sauce.
When the rabbit is ready, remove from the pan, wrap it in aluminum foil, and strain and whisk the sauce in a blender. Let the meat cool; it will be easier to slice evenly this way.
Serve the stuffed rabbit roll with its sauce, paired with Cantele Chardonnay Teresa Manara.
Friday August 19 the township of Guagnano will be the stage for the third annual “Terre del Negroamaro” (“Land of Negroamaro”) prize and festival. The best wineries in the northern Salento will pair their wines with classic dishes from the area and participants will experience the aromas and flavors and places of the Land of Negroamaro. Cantele will be part of the event, which represents one of the most important yearly gatherings of Negroamaro producers who join together to celebrate Salento.
Other wineries include: Feudi di Guagnano, Taurino, Eméra Tenute, Paolo Leo, Cantina Coop. Enotria di Guagnano, Candido, Cantina di San Donaci, Cantine Due Palme, Scippa Stefanizzo, and Lucio Leuci.
Participants will have the opportunity to pair the wines with tastes of classic, locally produced food products including foods by: Fa.Ro.Mi., L’Aja Noa, La Favorita, Nuova Macelleria Equina, Delizie di Latte, Osteria Carù, Il Giardino del Re, Cotto & Mangiato, Baccanera, and L’Orecchietta.
This year’s “Terra del Negroamaro” prize and festival lead participants down an enticing food and wine route that marries the energy and classic dishes of the Land of Negroamaro and allows them to shine. The schedule is rich with not-to-be-missed presentations. It all begins at 9 p.m. on Friday with tastings, concerts, plays, and art exhibits that will light up the ancient, narrow streets of Guagnano’s historical center.
Modern, interactive, and socially connected. These are the principal characteristics of a company that lives not only in the physical world where its products are produced and sold but also in the world of the Web 2.0 — the second generation of the internet.
For nearly two years, we have had a presence on the internet where we share news about our projects. Social Media provides us with channels of communication and marketing and are becoming more and more important for every type of company that wishes to interact directly with its customers and users.
Without forgetting about the importance of our presence in the physical world, we are attempting to build a meeting place where ideas can be exchanged and where we can help to raise awareness of Puglia and food and wine tourism here in our land. We believe that the new generation of our web presence is innovative and ambitious and we hope to deliver our message to an ever wider and more diversified audience. In doing so, we hope also to create an interactive dialog.
Until now, our company’s presence on the web has been purposely limited, as we have studied the new medium as a new form of marketing.
Now we are ready to launch a larger Social Networking project centered around Cantele Wines. Starting with our blog, our news will be posted and shared on Facebook, where our company has two Official Pages, one in Italian and one in English.
Our presence on the web will also continue to grow, beginning with Twitter, the microblogging platform where we present our wines and projects and we communicate with our followers and some of the top wine personalities on the web today. We also use Flickr and YouTube to share photos and videos. These media help us to reach wine loving internet surfers and share our passions and our land with them. We also have a presence on Vinix.it, an Italian wine and food social network where we reach out to food and wine lovers and food and wine bloggers.
We also plan to create a presence on Google Plus, Linked In and other networking sites where we will post our virtual media kit and keep in step with the quick pace of the second generation of the internet and the new forms of marketing through Social Media.
Our goal is to establish a strong presence in the second generation of the internet as we prepare for the third generation! As a company, we plan to use every new opportunity to communicate with and listen to our followers as we build an ever more diversified network of online wine lovers, readers, and foodies who wish to discover the magic of Puglia.
Thanks for reading and thanks for your support!
See you on the internet!
We just wanted to give a shout out to the folks in St. Louis who have been pouring our Rosato di Negroamaro at The Vino Gallery where Rachel Buehrer is at the top of her game when it comes to Italian wines.
Here’s what River Front Times writer Holly Fann had to say about the wine:
Long gone are the days when pink wine meant sweet and sticky. The resurgence of rosé-style wines has been strong with many French roses finding a standard place on local wine lists. Cantele’s Negroamaro Rosato, however, is a varietal wine from Puglia, Italy. “This is a great rosé-style wine using negroamaro grapes,” says Buehrer. “Negroamaro is also used to create big, bold reds that have lots of character but without any of that barn-yardy character you can find in big reds.” Cantele is a small producer, just the type of unique, small-scale vineyard that Vino Gallery likes to search out and offer its clientele.
Click here for the rest of the story and Holly’s excellent tasting notes.
Today’s recipe comes from Sonia Figone (above), a food blogger and native of Liguria who resides in London. The following post is Sonia’s contribution to the Cantele Food Bloggers Project.
Chicken and Zucchini Skewers à l’ancienne
(Old Fashioned Chicken and Zucchini Skewers)
In French, whole-grain mustard is called moutarde à l’ancienne (old fashioned mustard). Hence, the name of this wonderful summer dish, great for casual dinner parties on the patio with friends.
Ingredients for 20 skewers
Serves 6
1½ lbs. skinless chicken breast
2-3 medium-sized zucchini
juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsp. whole grained mustard
Cube the chicken breast into roughly ½-inch pieces and reserve. Thinly slice the zucchini lengthwise. Alternate the cubed chicken and zucchini on the skewers by first adding a piece of chicken and then gently folding the zucchini slices like an accordion before skewering. Repeat until you obtain roughly 20 skewers.
Prepare the sauce by whisking the lemon juice and mustard until emulsified. Using a brush, coat the skewers with the sauce, transfer to a glass baking dish (or similar) large enough to accommodate the skewers, drizzle with the remaining sauce, and transfer to the refrigerator for 1 hour to marinate.
Cook the skewers over a hot indoor grill (or ideally on an outdoor charcoal- or wood-fired grill), turning often, for about 10 minutes or until the chicken has browned and cooked through.
Pair with Cantele Rosato di Negroamaro.
Any first-time traveler to Puglia will note the overwhelming ubiquity of olive groves. There are literally olive trees planted as far as the eye can see. Here are some recently reported data on olive oil production in Puglia — Italy’s leading region.
369,000 hectares (911,919 acres) planted to olive trees.
40% of the total surface area planted to olive tree in Southern Italy.
32% of the total surface area planted to olive trees in Italy.
8% of the total surface area planted to olive trees in Europe.
48,127 olive oil mills (43% of national total).
7,536,393 quintals (38,1312 U.S. tons) produced.
Euro 660,337,019 annual gross sales.
Source: Teatro Naturale (translation by CanteleWines).
Above: A photo taken recently from atop Ostuni. The green canopy is composed entirely of olive trees.
Looking back on my recent trip to the United States, I am reminded that I spent 4 days in Texas, and one of them was particularly important. Fate (and my importer) decided that I would be spending May 24 — my 40th birthday — in Austin, where my good friend Jeremy Parzen aka Do Bianchi lives.
When I told him that I would have been perfectly happy celebrating the event in some club on Austin’s famous 6th Street (where nearly every venue features live music), he said, “No way, man! We’re going to celebrate at my house!”
Jeremy and his wife Tracie P organized a top-knotch party, with music, a great group of people, amazing wines, and an unforgettable strawberry cake. Thanks to them, I didn’t feel homesick that day.
I also want to send a heartfelt thanks to the people who came from Dallas and Houston just for the party. Alfonso Cevola, Guy Stout, and Diane Dixon contributed to the cheer of our vinous evening with crazy wines. My “pugliesi” friends Juliet and Michael Housewright were there, too. And I also made some new friends, Craig, Annie, and Loren.
Here are the wines we drank that night:
Chateau Musar 2001
Volnay Santenots 1er Cru 1993 – Domain Ampeau
Primitivo di Manduria 1992 – Vinicola Savese
Barbaresco Riserva Speciale 1971 – Calissano
Nebbiolo “Spanna” 1970 – Fratelli Berteletti
Vin Santo del Chianti Rufina 1990 – Villa di Vetrice
Today’s recipe comes from Le Franc Buveur who recently participated in the Cantele Food Bloggers Project.
Buon appetito! Enjoy!
Ingredients (per person):
extra-virgin olive oil
1 hole sea bass, cleaned and trimmed
1 potato, peeled and thinly sliced
1 red onion, sliced into thin rounds
capers
black olives
5-6 cherry tomatoes, diced
1 sprig rosemary
3-4 large fresh basil leaves, roughly torn
kosher salt
¼ cup white wine
Grease a large piece of aluminum foil with the olive oil. Arrange the foil in a oven-ready pan and place the fish on top. Top the fish with the potatoes and red onion. Add the capers and olives, distributing them evenly, and then add the tomatoes together with the rosemary and basil. Season with salt to taste.
Before transferring to a pre-heated oven at 400° F., drizzle the fish with olive oil and white wine and then carefully seal the aluminum foil. Roast for 20 minutes.
Are you hardcore rockers? Do you love the new North American alternative/noise movement? Are you looking for the new Sonic Youth?
You’ll find it all in Austin, the indisputable music capital of the United States.
And the next big thing to come out of Austin is going to be Residual Kid.
What do they sound like? Focused, pulsing rhythm section, piercing guitar, and a decisively punk-sounding female lead singer.
O, yeah, and I forgot to mention: these are rockers are just 11 and 12 years old!
Two band members are the children of Dan Redman (Cantele’s broker in Texas). At the end of one our work days (one of our “ride withs,” as they say down there), Dan took me to see Residual Kid during one of their rehearsals.
When I complimented them and told that they had written a great original song (which Dan had played me in the car), their manager and producer said: “how do you feel about playing “Pulling Through” for your first Italian fan?
After a few shy moments, Residual Kid grabbed their axes and immortalized themselves with a fantastic performance. They were amazing! Look for their new CD in stores soon…
RESIDUAL KID are:
Max Redman (drums)
Ben Redman (bass)
Deven Ivy (guitar)
Grace London (vocals)
