Wine & Food of the Giro 2015 Stage 2: Albenga - Genova

Where are we:  Traveling 173 kilometers from Albenga to Genova/Genoa.

Albenga: Albenga is situated on the Gulf of Genoa on the Italian Riviera in the Province of Savona in Liguria, northern Italy. Albenga has the nickname of city of a hundred spires.

Genova: Tourist website here.  The folks at Michelin tell me that it is the birthplace of Christopher Columbus and capital of Liguria. Genova features picturesque districts huddled on the slopes of the surrounding mountains. The city revolves around its port (re-designed by the architect Renzo Piano) and the sea, to which it owes its wealth and reputation. Genova “la Superba” is a city of contrasts where splendid palaces and ornate churches stand alongside more modest buildings, criss-crossed by a network of narrow streets known as carruggi.“The most winding and incoherent of cities, the most entangled topographical ravel in the world,” Henry James called it.

The stage: What should be our first sprint stage today. Alas, though, No Cav for the Giro this year, as he is riding the Tour of California. The favorite for the day is probably Andre Greipel, but there are other contenders.
They are heading here:

Talk about painting the town pink - Genoa welcomes il Giro pic.twitter.com/QnRlcYBXZ0

— Andrew Hood (@EuroHoody) May 10, 2015

 

We have our first break of the year, featuring Frapporti, Owsian, Berlato, Zhupa, and Lindeman. Their gap would grow steadily, up to eight minutes at one point. Along they went, with lovely images of the local coastline.  

With 52 kilometers to go, the break had 2'55" on the peloton. From the break, we have our first mountain jersey leader of the race, Bert-Jan Lindeman. 
Meanwhile, the water bottles must be brought up to teammates, so we have a new device in action.

 More history:

#giroditalia Let's keep of history lesson. Here lived the guy that found USA by mistake. Christopher Columbus 1492 pic.twitter.com/xAbV9TdVy2

— Procyclingnews.eu (@Procyclingeu) May 10, 2015

Twenty seven kilometers to go and the gap was under two minutes. Twenty four kilometers to go and caduta! Haussler and much of the IAM team involved. Everyone appeared to be back up and riding. 
Aware of the possibility of more trouble on the circuit in Genova, Tinkoff came to the front to protect Alberto Contador, the pre-race GC favorite.  Sure enough, how come the small cadutas. Haussler down again, among others, creating some splits in the peloton. Caught behind, Pozzovivo and Hesjedal. Eleven kilometers to go and the break has been reeled in. Time for the sprint trains to start organizing. Under three kilometers to go and the teams of the gc men can relax, as after this point all riders would receive the same time as the bunch if there were to be a crash. More here. 

BOOM --@eliaviviani wins stage 2 at #Giro. pic.twitter.com/oi43KjQ2Ia

— daniel (@cyclingreporter) May 10, 2015

 

Our stage winner: Elia Viviani, with his first grand tour stage win. 

 

Wine: Rocche del Gatto Rossese 2012

From Biondivino $27

I say: I know. I don't like to repeat producers, but I could not resist a Ligurian red. Plus, as I mentioned yesterday: Fortress of the Cat. Plus, a new grape:

From Winemonger:

Rossese immigrated to Italy from France, brought most likely into Liguria by soldiers of the powerful Genoese Doria family in the high Renaissance. Rossese owes its name to the vibrant color of the grape bunches, although the wines are not so deeply colored, ranging in hue from garnet to light ruby. Varietal characteristics include bright wild strawberry, blackcurrant and other forest fruit flavors, heralded by enticing rose and black-pepper aromatics. Modest of alcohol and vibrant of acid, Rossese shows intense fruit aromas when young, and does quite nicely with a slight chill” typically a wine for the pantry rather than the cellar.

I say: Light and delicate. Check on the acid, also the cherries, flowers and plums I expected.

Food: As you can see, I made focaccia. In honor of the herbs prevalent in Ligurian cuisine and all of the mentions of flowers in the region, I included radish flowers, rather than more traditional herbs. The basic recipe I used can be found here. I'd make it again, but would add more salt and more of the radish flowers. 

You can learn a lot more here from Bruce Schoenfeld on the region's food.

Wine & Food of the Giro 2015 Stage 1: San Lorenzo Al Mare to Sanremo

Where are we: Heading from San Lorenzo Al Mare to Sanremo with a 17.6 kilometer team time trial. 
San Lorenzo al Mare is located in the Province of Imperia in Liguria, located about 100 kilometres southwest of Genoa. Imperia is Liguria's westernmost province. It borders on Piedmont to the north, Savona to the east, and France to the west. To the south, it is lapped by the Ligurian Sea. The largest town is San Remo.

Sanremo is fairly well-known in cycling circles for the March Milan to Sanremo race. About that name, from Bicycling Magazine: "The town officially calls itself Sanremo, a contraction of San Romolo, the patron saint and protector of the city. The commonly seen two-word spelling, San Remo, was introduced in 1924 by the mayor and used in official Fascist documents. "
The city tourist guide tells me that: The city of Sanremo, which was founded in Roman times in a large inlet on the western Ligurian coast, is known as “The Pearl of the Riviera of the flowers” and is famous throughout the world for its perfect climatic conditions for swimming. Sanremo is also called the Town of Flowers - its flowers are well-known all over the world – and this can be clearly seen in its luxuriant gardens, its colorful flowerbeds, and in the town parks where tropical plants flourish.

The stage: A reminder: this is the "live race" portion of these posts, written while watching.
Here we go, starting with a 17.6 km team time trial. I've explained team time trials before, here and here, essentially though, in a TTT,  each team rides together with the time taken as the fifth rider crosses the line. As I've also said before, a TTT rarely wins a Grand Tour for a rider, but a loss of time to rivals can be significant. You can see the Podium Cafe stage preview here. 
And off they go: 

The moment the #Giro started -- just now. pic.twitter.com/udaATjjDYX

— daniel (@cyclingreporter) May 9, 2015

 There will be five minute gaps between the teams. The order is:

Lampre-Merida, Ag2r La Mondiale, Androni Giocattoli, Astana Pro Team, Nippo-Vini Fantini, Trek Factory Team, Bardiani CSF, BMC Racing Team, Team Sky, Etixx-Quickstep, Giant-Alpeci, IAM Cycling, Movistar, Southeast, CCC Sprandi Polkowice, Orica-GreenEDGE, Lotto NL-Jumbo, Lotto-Soudal, Katusha, Tinkoff-Saxo, Cannondale-Garmin, and FDJ. 

The favorite on the day? Orica-GreenEDGE. 

First in, of course, Lampre at 20.25 or 51.722km/h. The first of the contender's teams, Astana sets an early time of 19.39. That time would hold for a long time, with BMC slotting in to second and Sky third. Etixx-Quickstep threatened, but they were in second to Astana. 

But, sure enough, our winners on the day were Orica-GreenEDGE. Into pink, Simon Gerrans. 

Classification / Classifica 1) @ORICA_GreenEDGE 19'26" 2) @tinkoff_saxo + 7" 3) @AstanaTeam +13" #giro

— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 9, 2015

Wine: Rocche del Gatto Pigato 'Spigau' 2006

From Biondivino $34.00 

From an importer:

After a decade of solitary experiments and a growing line of brilliant releases, Rocche del Gatto (www.lerocchedelgatto.it) represent today one of Liguria’ most interesting, self-styled small growers, determined to propose an extreme, highly individual interpretation of Pigato and Vermentino varietal whites. Rocche del Gatto specializes in producing concentrated, marine whites from estate vines located in the Ponente region of Liguria, made entirely from the native Pigato, Vermentino and Ormeasco varieties. Owner Fausto De Andreis, agronomist and one-man-winery, is credited by Gambero Rosso as the ‘last Pigato artisan’.
Rocche del Gatto operates in one of the most beautiful and picturesque corners of Italy, the Riviera Ligure di Ponente, in westernmost reaches of Liguria close to the French border. Here alpine mountains meet the Mediterranean, producing a landscape of breathtaking contrasts: rugged coastal peaks, vivid maritime colours, ancient villages and steep vineyards intermixed by olive groves facing onto the Tyrrhenian sea. Rocche del Gatto estate vineyards amount to 5 Ha., concentrated in the commune of Albenga.
The annual wine production barely reaches 35.000 bottles, split into classic varietals such as Pigato, Vermentino and Rossese, plus the not-so-common red-berry Ormeasco [presumed to be a local clone of the Dolcetto variety from Piedmont]. Fausto De Andreis is a self-made agronomist and winemaker who meticulously take care of every phase of production from planting and pruning up until bottling and labeling.
 

I say: The Fortress of the Cat. How could I resist? Plus, pigato, a white grape planted primarily in Liguria. Deep golden. Herbs, minerals, nuts, wax, citrus. Not surprisingly, a lot more interesting as it warms up a bit and even better on day two. This is an excellent start.

Food: So this year, in addition to my wine picks, each stage will have a featured food. Some will be ingredients, some prepared dishes. Note that because I am not always 100% organized, the foods and wines may also not always pair, but are both from the regions the riders are cycling through.

I start with olive oil, specifically from Punta Crena. Spoiler: one of their wines will make an appearance soon. Why olive oil? Because it is an important product of the region and will turn up as an ingredient in my dishes for the rest of the Ligurian stages. The importer, Kermit Lynch, says that describesit as "Our lightest and most versatile oil, from thousand-year-old Taggiasca trees growing along an old Roman road high above the Mediterranean. Perfect for fish, salads, and most things—you’ll find that you go through it almost as quickly as a bottle of their Pigato."

Tuesdays with Dorie with K: Coconut Tapioca

So we skipped the last project, because although Limoncello cupcakes sounded good to me, there was a little too much alcohol involved for K. Plus, I am in the middle of Giro wine prep. 
K was not very enthusiastic about this one either. "Coconut? I hate coconut."  "I know K. But try it." As luck would have it, we made this on a night when she had a friend over. The friend had a lot more enthusiastic for coconut than K did. Plus the presence of an extra child meant that they could handle almost all of the steps on their own.

Links to other Tuesdays with Dorie Coconut Tapioca posts here. 


The verdict: Instructions: clear. Taste: nice alone, but it really came alive the next day when I paired it with strawberries and the first blueberries of the season.

Tuesdays with Dorie with K: Crispy-Topped Brown Sugar Bars

More Tuesdays with Dorie. 

Cover a cookie base with melted chocolate and caramelized Rice Krispies? 
Count K in.
She is rather partial to her very special Rice Krispies Treats. 

The process:
Cookie base: easy. 
Melted chocolate: easy. 
Caramelizing Rice Kripsies? "Mama, can you help with this part?" Sure, K. 

The verdict: A little sweet for me, but a big hit with K.

Tuesdays with Dorie with K: Lemon Madeleines

Here we are again with Tuesday's with Dorie. Up this time: Lemon Madeleines. 

As you can see from the picture above, we had to acquire a Madeleine pan. Our neighborhood package thief was apparently less excited about the pan then we were. We came home to find the package open outside our front door, with the pan still inside. Luckily, that and the squeezing of the lemons for juice were the hardest part of this project. In other words: another easy and excellent recipe.

Although I meant to simply follow the recipe, K made the batter while I was out and used the Meyer rather than standard lemons. Close!  I came home to chilled batter that we then spooned into the molds. After baking we dipped each cookie into the glaze, which was K's favorite part.

The verdict: K: "These were really good and I hope we can make them again. The glaze made them even better." I say: Indeed, we will be making these again. They were simple, tasty and pretty. Plus, not that we have the pan, it would be silly not to experiment with other flavors. 

Next up: Crispy-Topped Brown Sugar Bars on pg. 324

Tuesdays with Dorie with K: Blood Orange Tart (Pink Grapefruit Tart)

More Tuesdays with Dorie

In Baking Chez Moi, this recipe is for a Pink Grapefruit Tart with Campari included in the filling. That however was rather unappealing to bitter-hating K. To be honest, lemon and lime aside, she really does not care for citrus, so subbing lovely to look at blood orange seemed our best option. 

This was a recipe of many steps, so we made the tart over several days. On day one, K made the crust. That out of the way, next up was the lemon almond cream, followed by my favorite part, a blood orange cremeux. None of the steps were particularly complicated, but they include significant chilling time, so I'd suggest not trying to make this one the day of a party.

The verdict: Blood oranges instead of pink grapefruit and no Campari meant that we ended up with a different tasting final product. That said, although I agree with K that if we make it again, we'd try lime, we both enjoyed this one. Plus, pretty never hurts. 

Next up: Lemon Madeleines

Blood orange juice

Cremeux

A friend thought this looked like fancy little umbrellas.

Tuesdays with Dorie with K: Marquise au Chocolat

K eyed this recipe with some suspicion. "Mama, what is Marquise au Chocolat?" "Basically K, it is a frozen chocolate mousse." "Okay, I'll make that."

So make it we did, chopping and melting chocolate with butter over a pot of simmering water and allowing it to cool before adding our sugar and egg yolk mixture. Next up, one of K's favorite kitchen tasks, the whipping of the heavy cream. Finally, the chocolate mixture was folded into the cream, before being scooped into a loaf pan and frozen. As you can see above, if you don't fold completely, you may end up with a white streak or two in your finished product. It will taste just fine anyway.

The verdict: Another hit. Although we are more fruit than chocolate lovers, we'll be making this again. K loves frozen treats of all sorts and I appreciated being able to keep the leftovers in the freezer for a party later in the week. We'll make this again, though next time may add the suggested cookie crumbles.