At Nostrani with Guillaume Deschamps

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
1

Last evening Guillaume came up from Albuquerque to have dinner with us at Nostrani Ristorante. We were seated at our usual table and ordered sparkling water and our first wine, 2005 Marcarini Barbera ‘Ciabot Camerano’. We then ordered our antipasti - Fritto Misto with cheese-stuffed squash blossoms for Carollee & Guillaume and mussel salad with spinach for me. They were very good with the rich, spicy Barbera.

When we had finished with the antipasti, we ordered our primi - Guillaume had the tagliarini with heirloom tomatoes, Carollee had chittarini with figs and prosciutto, and I had gnocchetti with garden peas. With our primi we had a 2000 Travalglini Gattinara Reserva. The Gattinara was bigger, and had darker fruit than the Barbera and was very good with our primi.

When we were finished, we ordered our secondi - Carollee & I each had Vitello Tonnato, while Guillaume had Branzino with an herb butter. Eric suggested a Barbaresco, whose producer I can’t remember. to go with our secondi. It had rich, bright fruit with good acidity and was a good match with our meals.

We ended our meals with dessert - Carollee & Guillaume had the panna cotta with melon, while I had a cookie plate. Guillaume had an espresso and I had a glass of of Port.

It was a very nice evening and enjoyable getting together with Guillaume after only communicating with on the wine board.

2

Sounds like a lovely meal, Dick. Did they card Guillaume? [wink.gif]

3

No but the US Immigration Service and our famous maricopa County Sheriff will when he drives through Arizona. [whistle.gif]

4

Jack, Melissa’s comment is in reference to a comment I made on Facebook, I got carded while entering a casino (where I was staying for the night) in Mississipi - I asked the guy if he had to card everybody or just people who looked like they could be under 21 and he said “only people who look under 21”, at which point I got worried for his sanity (or eyesight).

The dinner at Trattoria Nostrani was nothing short of spectacular. The squash blossoms filled with cheese were great but my favorite part was the lightly battered green asparagus, those were brilliant. The primi was just out of this world, “simple” saffron pasta with roasted tomatoes and some slightly warm creamy mozzarella - that was another brilliant dish, my only regret being having ordered only a half dish of it! The fish suffered a bit of the comparison with the previous dish. Dessert was also excellent.

Re: the wines I thought the 2nd we had was the best - nice lifting acidity, good expression and definitely feeling very Italian (for what it’s worth since I’ve maybe had 10 bottles of Italian wine in my life).

5

The Barbaresco was still pretty young. I think it was a 2001; so it wasn’t as forthcoming as the Gattinara.

6

If I remember correctly the Barbaresco was a 2000 and with the mention “Faset”, which according to CellarTracker leads to 4 possible producers: Abbona, Berutti/La Spinona, Azienda Bricco Asili (Ceretto) and Castello di Verduno…

7

Last night we went to Nostrani and I asked Eric what we had for the third wine with Guillaume. It was a 2000 Moccagatta Barbaresco Bric Balin.