No Right Foot

Three nights ago, I embarked on a mission. I wanted to see if I could 'break' the the 2008 Mollydooker Two Left Feet.  In other words, I wanted to see if I could cook up something bold and spicy just to find out if the Two Left Feet would hold up.

So, I cooked up some Mezzetta Napa Valley Bistro Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce in a crock pot and added 6 spicy Italian sausages from a local market. I cooked this for about 6 hours and served it on top of spaghetti noodles. To top it off, I added a romaine salad with purple onions, orange bell peppers, vine-ripe tomatoes, and Italian dressing.

The Two Left feet didn't even blink when it came to the spaghetti. Even with the slight red-pepper spices in the sausage, this very versatile and full-bodied wine survived very nicely... all the way to the end of a very long finish.  I've overwhelmed many Cabernet, Merlot, and Syrah/Shiraz in the same price range - usually unwittingly, but not this bad boy.  The wine is at 16% alcohol, which can sometimes be a bit much - sometimes masking flaws in an average but over-the-top wine.  However, I found that the heat of the Mollydooker was an asset in this meal as it took a bit of the edge off of the red peppery spices while leaving the dark fruit flavors and leathery tannins to sail on until the end.
For ‘fun’, I save the salad for the 2nd course. I will say that the salad was almost a bit much, especially following such an intense main dish, but again the Two Left Feet survived the abuse. I’m thinking that, next time, I’ll eat the salad first and pair it with a nice pale ale and THEN open the wine.... more on that later...

Anyway, I completed the evening a couple hours later having a small glass of the Two Left Feet…. We’ll call it dessert! It was ffabulous.  I didn't even need a chunk of dark chocolate to pair it with, although that would have been a perfect combination.

.... soooooooooooooooooooo.... that took care of half the bottle and half the adventure.

The next evening, I made a pizza.  I make my own crust using basic ingredients - flour, salt, sugar, olive oil, and just a touch of crushed basil leaves.  On any given night, I'd also use olive oil instead of Tomato sauce.  However, I was on a quest!  So, I used some of the leftover spaghetti sauce (now full of spice) on the pizza and topped it with mozzarella, pepperoni, sun-dried tomatoes, and a bit of medium cheddar.  The salad was the same as the previous evening, but this time I used a balsamic vinaigrette for dressing.
 
The wine was even better the second time around.  After being opened for 24 hours (spending much of that time in my little Vinotemp fridge), the Two Left Feet softened up very nicely and lost absolutely nothing in terms of nose, flavor, or finish. 
 
I ate the salad first.  I washed it down with a glass of the Two Left Feet and, once again, this wine didn't even blink.  If this vino from down under can handle this, I thought, then the pizza will be a breeze.

And it was.  In fact, it was phenomenal.  The complexity of the Two Left Feet - laced with dark berries, mocha, black licorice, and a hint of pepper was perfect for the pizza.... and after my 2nd (and last) slice of the evening, I finished the wine and smiled.

I smiled because I've had this wine with numerous foods... steak, blackened salmon, and now spaghetti and pizza.  And I loved it every time. 

Now, where is the chili cheeseburger?!!!

Cheers!

Nice family dinner.... with wine, of course

Last night, I decided to try something different.... BBQ spaghetti. Well, not entirely... I took a pound of extra lean hamburger, seasoned it up with lots of garlic salt, and put the whole slab on the BBQ. I turned the slab about every 2 minutes until it was cooked almost all the way through.... then I took it from the grill and moved it into a frying pan, chopped up the slab, and added some sliced spicy Italian sausage. I continued grilling the sausage and chopped beef and, as the sausage became dark around the edges, I added basil tomato sauce and some chopped onion. Then, I let the whole thing just simmer for about 20 minutes while I boiled the spaghetti noodles, heated up some bread, and tossed a baby green salad.

While I cooked, I enjoyed a nice cold bottle of Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA. Delicious beer.

With dinner, we opened a bottle of 2005 Columbia Crest Two Vines Vineyard 10 Red... a deliciously mid-fruity and mildly spicy red blend that worked very nicely with the spicy spaghetti.

Final thought - doing the BBQ added nice flavor, but it also dried the meat out a bit. Oh well.... didn't matter. We enjoyed the dinner complete with the wine, and I crashed around 9:30 last night... game over.

Cheers!