wine tasting

A group of people get together ever few months to have a wine tasting.  I love the concept.  Everyone brings a bottle.  The bottles are brown bagged.  Everyone gets a piece of paper and a pen.  As you taste the wines, numbered 1 – 11 last night, you write down your thoughts on each glass.  At the end, votes are tallied up for the top three favorites.  Interesting how different everyone's palette is and then of course how wine tastes different when eating food.

The event was at our house last night and this is the first one I have been to.  Pizza was the food.  I made eight different pizzas.  The dough should really be made the night before.  Makes for a much better dough.

Recipe for the dough:

Take 1 1/2 cups really warm, almost hot water and sprinkle 1/4 tsp. of yeast on top.  Let that sit for about 10 minutes and the water should turn foggy and feel a little thicker.  If it doesn't do this, the yeast isn't active.  Then add 2 tsp. olive oil and 2 tsp. kosher salt.  In the mix master, put in 4 cups all-purpose flour and pour the water mixture over the top.  Mix with the kneader for 10 minutes at medium low speed.  The dough will form a ball and completely pull away from the bowl.  After 10 minutes, take the bowl off the mix master and put a damp towel over the top and let it sit for 5 minutes.  Then, put the bowl back and knead again for 10 more minutes.  Once this process is over, take out the dough, fold it over to make a ball, cover with olive oil, put into a new bowl, cover with plastic wrap ( tightly ) and put in the refrigerator over night.  In the morning, pull the dough out, fold it in half and put back in the refrigerator for 4 hours to 24 hours.  About 2 hours before you are ready to use the dough, roll the dough out, just a little, and cut it into 4 equal pieces.  Make each piece into a ball and set on a floured surface ( put it on a cutting board ), each piece far away from each other to grow.  Put a damp cloth over the four balls and let sit until you are ready to use.  At least 2 hours in advance so the dough can riseIngredients were all over the place. 

I prepped mushrooms, broccoli rabe mixed with shallots, pine nuts, fontina, goat gouda, mozzarella, roasted cauliflowers, tomato sauce, prosciutto, pancetta, spinach, Parmesan, basil, caramelized onions, marinated artichokes and crushed pepper flakes and set them each in a separate bowl for easy fixings. 

Here are the pizzas:

Goat Gouda, mushrooms and spinach

Tomato sauce, mozzarella, proscuitto and basil

Cauliflower, fontina, artichokes and pine nuts

 
Tomato sauce, broccoli rabe, chili peppers

Tomato sauce, mozzarella, pancetta and onions

Cauliflower, Parmesan, cauliflower, artichokes, fontina

Mushrooms, spinach, broccoli rabe, onions, mozzarella

Cauliflower, onions, mozzarella, pine nuts

The winning wine was the Neo.

Great night.