Pour the Cheap Wine in the Gallo Bottle

The food section of today's NY Times has an article about cooking with wine. Way back in the days of yore, Julia Child advised not to cook with cheap wine. Apparently hordes of cooks took her advice to heart and floated loans to buy pricey wine to dump into the boeuf bourgignon. Not Grapeshot. Grapeshot had always observed that a modest wine could assist the cook in creating a spectacular dish.

I am one of those people who don't always heed authority. Just ask my mom. Have to learn everything the hard way, except when I follow instinct and always cook with ordinary wine, or think about butter versus margarine. Butter is a natural food and no one will ever see "all natural" on a margarine bottle or box or tub. So for years I joked to people (who never, ever, saw the humor) that "margarine will kill you." Now of course with transfats, etc., that starts to sound like folk wisdom. Same for egg substitute. You won't ever see "all natural." Egg yolks have tons of nutrients. Don't me a nitwit about food. Fruits, veggies, dairy + meat in moderation. Lots of whole grains. Treats in moderation. Smaller helpings. It' s so friggin' simple.

Exit soap box.

Cook with wine. Tonight we're having the pork tenderloin from this month's Gourmet. It's one of their "weekday meals" which is about all I ever cook from Gourmet. We live in the boonies and don't have easy access to many ethnic and obscure ingredients.

Yesterday, in mild desperation after inviting a crowd for lasagna, I looked for a recipe. Now I have Ed Giobbi's Lasagna, which we always thought was the world's best, but for various reasons relating to pan size and so forth, I decided to look for a new recipe.

Major bummer. Nothing looked quite right. In desperation I Googled "Ed Giobbi's Lasagna" and up popped a BLOG, yes, a bloody blog, with link's to both Ed's recipe and another which the blogger said was equally good. Invited readers to try both and decide which was the superior recipe. Blogger was ambivalent. So I'm going to try the new recipe. Sauce from scratch, lots of cheeses, out of season basill. You name it. I'll let you know. Rats! Can't find the link. O.K., I'll post the recipe now and a critique later.

Off to make a shopping list.

Grapeshot