Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook–I’m glad you’re here!
Mr. Stone Soup and I just returned from a very quick trip to Calistoga to pick up some wine at one of our wine club wineries. The Napa Valley had on its coat of many colors, as well as some whimsical Halloween decorations! The rabbit in the picture is a permanent installation outside of Hall Winery in St. Helena, here all decked out for Halloween with his candy basket. He has always been one of my favorite landmarks and brings a smile to my face every time I see him!
The weather was rainy, cool and crisp on our first day, and clear as bell the next–or as I like to call it: wine country magic!
We belong to a couple of wine clubs in Calistoga: August Briggs and Picayune, and you’ve seen me recommend wines from both of these boutique wineries from time to time.
Since we live only a couple of hours from the Napa Valley, it’s easy for us to get there in time for lunch. We always eat lunch at the same place: the Calistoga Inn. Mr. Stone Soup always gets the rueben sandwich and garlic fries, but I like to shop around the menu. They, like so many other restaurants specializing in California Cuisine, have a menu that changes with the seasons, although there are some regular items, like the rueben sandwich. I like to rotate my choices depending on what looks good that day; on Sunday, I chose the zucchini and pine nut pizza with pesto sauce:
I recreated it for dinner when we got home. It’s a lovely melange of fall ingredients like squash and sweet basil, coupled with the goodness of burrata cheese. This pizza is great for dinner with a nice, crunchy salad, but would also be wonderful as a hot appetizer for a party. And while it’s great with zucchini, it would be equally good with thinly sliced asparagus, or any other sturdy vegetable, such as bell pepper.
Naturally, we also tried several wonderful wines while we were there. The one that I would drink with this terrific little pizza would be 2022 Gatekeeper wine at Picayune, which at $39.00 a bottle is a steal. It’s smooth, juicy and fruit forward–very drinkable right now, but will be good for a few years yet. It’s a nice blend that includes Grenache and Syrah and pairs beautifully with pizza or bar-b-que.
Tune in tomorrow when I’ll feature one of the delightful salads I enjoyed while we were up there.
Until then–
Peace, love and good food!
Keri
