In honor of May being the month of Rosé wines, I figured I’d pick up three wines available for under $15 to pair with food and write about. These are wines you don’t need to cellar, but you can if you’d like. It’s nice, though to have wine on hand you can open up and drink at dinner on a Friday evening. And open up and enjoy is what we did. The first of the wines I paired up was the 2014 La Valentina Rosé, Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo, and I paired it with a chicken pesto pasta macaroni and cheese dish. Believe me when I say it, this is not your average mac and cheese. You can find the recipe at the end of this post.
2014 La Valentina Rosé
The La Valentina 2014 Rosé has a lovely pink berry juice color to it. This is a dry rosé wine. It is fruity and young and green, but in a good way. It is full bodied, and had notes of strawberries and watermelon. It’s also got a bit of smoke to it that pairs well with the bleu cheese in the pasta bake. It also had flavors of bell pepper and black pepper on the finish. The 2014 La Valentina Rosé is lovely wine, great for pairing with food or drinking on its own.
Have you tried the wine? Post your thoughts about it in the comments section. Remember, I have two other rosé wines to talk about soon!
- 21 oz macaroni pasta
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into chunks
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 green pepper, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- 3 cups cheddar cheese shredded
- 2 cups crumbled bleu cheese
- 1 bunch kale
- 4 tbsp butter
- 4 tbsp flour
- 3 1/2 cups milk
- 1 jar (7 oz.) pesto
- 1 tsp ground mustard
- 1 tsp white pepper
- Salt and pepper
- 1. Preheat the oven to 350.
- 2. Cook macaroni noodles until they're almost done. When they're ready, drain and toss with a little olive oil.
- 3. In a sauté pan, heat olive oil. Add onion and sauté until translucent. Add minced garlic, green pepper, and red pepper flakes and heat until fragrant. Add chicken and sauté until no longer pink. Add in kale, cook just until kale wilts.
- 4. Add chicken mixture to pasta and toss.
- 5. In a sauce pan, you're going to make a roux. Heat the butter until it's melted, add flour, whisk together and cook until the flour-butter mixture is a lovely golden color. Slowly add the milk while whisking, mustard, and white pepper. Cook until sauce is thickened. Remove from heat and melt in 2 cups of cheddar, bleu cheese, and the pesto.
- 6. Add the sauce to the pasta mixture and toss well to combine. Pour all into a 9"x13" casserole pan. Distribute remaining cheddar evenly on top.
- 7. Place in oven, cook 20-25 minutes until heated and golden on top. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
- You can substitute spinach or chard for kale.
