07/12/06 Salad & Wine

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran. On today's program, we are going to look at wines that are meant to accompany your dinner when a salad is the main attraction. We often have big salads as the entrée at our house. Since the salad is the main course, it is fun to design it to accompany a special wine. As a rule, it is a good idea to create a more robust salad if you are pouring red wine. For example, a salad with a bed of Romaine lettuce is nice with cold grilled salmon or chicken atop it. Toss it with a savory sun-dried tomato salad dressing. And it pairs well with Spanish and Italian red wines. A light sweet lettuce like Boston lettuce is a nice backdrop for grilled scallops, tossed in a nice lemony vinaigrette and served with a crisp Sauvignon Blanc. If you prefer heartier greens, spinach topped with sautéed mushrooms and a walnut oil based dressing, could be served with most any red wine that you would serve the mushroom preparation with. Also try salads that are made with a combination of grilled vegetable over chilled pasta or rice. Play around with preparing unusual salads and make the dressing interesting and not the same old oil and vinegar thing. You may be surprised at just how many different wines they might pair well with. 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.