11/17/05 Food and wines - Kale recipes

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran and today is food and wine pairing day and we are continuing our Thursday series - searching through the holiday food and wine magazines to find interesting new recipes - and of course the wines that go with them. Last week we peeked into the November issue of Food and Wine magazine and today we are going to jump on another recipe from that issue. I am a big lover of kale and I don't very often find a recipe that makes me think that I could make a kale lover out of someone who claims to dislike this gorgeous leaf. Nevertheless, I think this simple preparation could do it. Look on page 58. Basically, you put shallots, onions, garlic, thyme and fresh ground pepper and kale in hot olive oil stir it around until everything is soft. Then you put it in a glass-baking dish, cover it with gruyere cheese and croutons, and bake it until it is bubbly and brown on top. Oh my! Well I messed around and tried quite a few white wines with it and some were okay. However, the wines that really matched up were reds made in lighter styles with moderate amounts of oak. Chianti Classico worked so did Beaujolais and lighter Pinot Noir. What a pleasant surprise. Not only did I find great recipe for kale  it was also great with red wine! Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.