Whitehall Lane Tre Leoni & Savory Meatballs
Meatballs and Whitehall Lane Tre Leoni
Savory on the outside, juicy on the inside. These meatballs are mixed with chopped almonds and black olives to jazz up the texture and match with the darker notes of Whitehall Lane's Tre Leoni. Served with a quick and easy homemade sauce made with a dash of red wine (you are going to have to part with a bit of Tre Leoni for this one).
Serves 4 people / cooking time: 20 minutes
■ Ingredients
400g ground beef
1/4 of an onion
1 egg
30g almonds
Black olives pitted 30g
A Bread crumbs 30g
A 1/2 teaspoon (about 3 grams) of salt
A Pinch of black pepper
B 3 Tablespoons each of ketchup and Worcestershire sauce
B 2 Tablespoons of red wine
B 15g of butter
1 tbsp. olive oil + 1 tsp.
Adequate amount of flour
■ Instructions
1. Roughly chop the almonds and fry them fragrantly in a pan and let them cool. Finely chop the onion and fry it in a frying pan with a teaspoon of olive oil until it becomes soft. Allow to cool. Roughly chop the black olives.
2. Put the ground beef, egg, items from step 1 and [A] in a bowl and mix with your hands until sticky. Divide into 16 equal parts. Roll into balls and dust lightly with flour.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Roll meatballs gently to brown all over. Reduce heat to low, cover, and steam until cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove to a plate and wipe the pan with kitchen paper.
4. Pour [B] into the frying pan and reduce to a simmer over medium heat.
■ Tips
After frying the almonds and onions, spread them out on a flat plate and place an ice pack under the plate to cool them quickly.
Mentioned in this blog
Whitehall Lane is a small, family-owned winery in Napa Valley's historic Rutherford appellation. Estate vineyards are comprised of approximately 140 acres of prime Valley-floor vineyards including the Leonardini Vineyard in St. Helena.
Whitehall Lane has received accolades and awards for producing some of the greatest wines in the world. In Wine Spectator Magazine's year-end ranking of wines, Whitehall Lane has been honored an unprecedented three times in five years for producing wines rated among the top five in the world. The winery has also been voted Winery of the Year from the Quarterly Review of Wines and Wine and Spirits Magazine.
Whitehall Lane was founded in 1979 but the history of soil cultivation dates back two centuries. In the mid-1800s, Napa Valley settlers were drawn to the deep, loamy soils and ideal climate, planting high-quality grape vines at the Whitehall Lane Winery site. A barn constructed in the early 1900s for equipment storage is still used today. In 1979, two brothers started the winery and directed their winemaking efforts successfully to Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. They named the winery after the road that runs along the southern border of the property, Whitehall Lane.
In 1993, the Leonardini Family of San Francisco took control of the Whitehall Lane estate. They updated the winemaking, instituted a new barrel-aging program and continued sourcing the finest vineyards. What started with only one vineyard is now seven prime vineyards that are the cornerstone on which the wines are made and include the Whitehall Lane Estate Vineyard, Millenium MM Vineyard and Bommarito Vineyard in the Rutherford Appellation, the Leonardini Vineyard and Fawn Park Vineyard in St. Helena, Oak Glen Vineyard in the Oak Knoll District and Rassi VIneyard in Sonoma. The Estate Vineyard is 25 acres of "Rutherford Dust" offering beautiful Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc grapes. The Millenium MM Vineyard offers outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon fruit while the Bommarito Vineyard is planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. The Leonardini Vineyard is 14 acres of gravely soil yielding powerful Cabernet Sauvignon fruit and elegant yet intense Merlot grapes that go into the "Leonardini Vineyard" vineyard-designated wine. The Fawn Park Vineyard is on a gentle slope of the eastern hillside and produces intense Cabernet Sauvignon. The 25-acre Oak Glen Vineyard produces flavorful Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.
In its short history, Whitehall Lane has developed into a world-class winery. The efforts of the Leonardini Family are evident in the recent run of accolades from wine publications but are even more apparent in the beautifully made, elegant wines they continue to make.
