[1] Start with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc (photo © Cloudy Bay WineCloudy Bay Wine).

[2] Mixed berries for muddling into your wine spritzer (photo © Green Giant FreshGreen Giant Fresh).

[3] Squeeze in a couple of lime wedges (photo by Hannah Kaminsky | The Nibble).

[4] Two of the 20 flavors of Polar Seltzer (photograph © Polar SeltzerPolar Seltzer).

[5] Coravin Wine System (photo © CoravinCoravin | Facebook).

[6] A blueberry spritz (photo © Timur Weber | Pexels).

[6] Red wine spritzes (photo © Carraba’s Italian Grill | Facebook).

May 25th was National Wine Day, and since then we’ve been enjoying a daily wine spritzer using the recipe below.

The recipe came to us from Coravin, a leading wine preserving system, which allows you to pour a glass from a bottle of wine without ever opening it.

Watch this short video for a demo.

Essentially, a thin needle goes through the cork and the wine is pumped into the glass. The cork heals after the needle is removed so the wine is safe from air.

If you purchase a Coravin System directly from Coravin.com, you can try it at home risk-free. If you’re not completely satisfied, you may return it within thirty days of the purchase date.

No one less than our favorite wine critic, Robert M. Parker, Jr., has hailed the Coravin System as “the most transformational and exciting new product for wine lovers that has been invented in the last 30+ years—this is a killer device.”

The models start at a fairly-priced $249.95 and up, and are a great gift for a wine connoisseur who wants to drink costly bottles a glass or two at a time.

Make yourself a wine spritzer—no Coravin required—as you contemplate the different models.

> The history of the Spritz is below.

> The history of Sauvignon Blanc.

> The history of wine.

> The year’s 22+ white wine holidays.
 
 
RECIPE: SKINNY WHITE WINE SPRITZ WITH FRUIT

Starting note: While Americans tend to call this drink a spritzer, the proper name is Spritz.

A plain wine Spritz combines wine and carbonated water, and perhaps a wine wedge.

This one adds muddled berries and remains a low-calorie cocktail option.

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. MUDDLE the fruit in a wine glass, then fill the glass halfway with ice.

2. ADD the Sauvignon Blanc first; then add the seltzer to fill the glass.

3. SQUEEZE in the lime juice and stir. Add the whole pieces of fresh fruit and the squeezed lime wedges to garnish.
 
 
WINE SPRITZER HISTORY

In German, spritz means a splash or spray.

A Spritzer is a tall, chilled drink, made from white wine (still or sparkling) and soda water.

The Spritz Veneziano (Venetian Spritz or wine spritzer, as it’s called in the U.S.) is a wine-based cocktail, commonly served as an apéritif in northeastern Italy where Venice, and the Veneto region, are located.

The drink originated in Venice while it was part of the Austrian Empire (1815-1866), and is based on the Austrian Spritzer, a combination of equal parts white wine and soda water.

When the Habsburgs began to dominate the area of the Veneto, the Hapsburg soldiers, merchants, diplomats and administrative employees of who were stationed in the area, headed to the tavern for a glass of wine.

But they found that the wines from the Veneto were significantly higher in alcohol content than the wines to which they were accustomed at home.

They began to ask the tavern-keepers to spray a bit of water into the wine (spritzen, in German) to make the wines lighter. The original Spritz, in fact, was simply sparkling white or red wine diluted with water.

The Spritz Evolves

The first evolution of The Spritz arrived in the early 1900s, when siphons for carbonated water became widely available. They made it possible to make a sparkling Spritzer using still wine.

The trend moved beyond the taverns: Austrian noblewomen, who because of the siphon now saw the drink as glamorous, drank it and served it in their homes.

Over the years, the Spritz evolved to include liqueur (Aperol or Campari, e.g., garnished with an orange slice) or a bitter (China Martini or Cynar, e.g., garnished with a lemon peel or olive).

In Venice and the surrounding Veneto area of northern Italy, Select, a local red bitter aperitif liqueur, is a popular pairing.

Our favorite version is the Aperol Spritz, prepared with prosecco, Aperol, and a topping-off of sparkling mineral water.

The Aperol Spritz is usually served over ice in a rocks glass or in a wine glass, and garnished with a slice of orange. Here’s the recipe.

The recipes for spritzers are numerous, depending on local tastes and bartenders (source).
 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD “SPRITZ”

When drilling down into a topic, we often check out the origin of the word. And with “Spritz,” a most German-sounding word, we found out that the word’s origin is…English!

The German verb spritzen (“to spray” or “to splash”) is the direct linguistic root of both the English word “spritz” and the name of the popular wine cocktail.

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

Dukkah is a versatile Egyptian dry seasoning mixture of chopped nuts or chickpeas, plus a variety of flavorful seeds, spices and herbs.

In the old days, the ingredients were ground together in a pestle; today, they can be tossed into a food processor.

Dukkah is an extremely popular snack in the culinary melting pots of New Zealand and Australia, where it’s a perfect pairing with the local wines.

Pour a glass, cut up some pita or other bread, put some olive oil in a dish next to a dish of dukkah ground nut and seed mix, dip the bread into both, and that’s your snack along with the wine.

It hasn’t yet hit home (the U.S.A.) as a condiment, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be the leader in your crowd to discover it.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF DUKKAH

Thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt, somebody concocted a mixture of nuts, seeds and spices to consume with pita bread, aash baladi (also spelled eesh balady) dipped in olive oil.

The bread was first dipped into olive oil and then into the nut mixture. That mixture came to be known as “dukkah” (pronounced DOO-ka, from the Arabic dokka, meaning “coarsely ground”). It is still eaten today in this same traditional manner.

Beyond bread, dukkah’s greatest merit lies in its versatility. Its strong flavors and easy application can lend Middle Eastern pizzazz to meat, seafood and salads (more in the section below).

Yet dukkah remains largely absent from the average American home cook’s repertoire and even awareness. Have you heard of it?

Australians and New Zealanders have pull this ancient dish out of the days of yore and into their home kitchens. Now it’s your turn.

Below are a recipe template, plus a source to buy dukkah ready-made.
 
 
DUKKAH IS VERSATILE

Yet, you can cook with it, adding it to seafood, meat, salads and even a sweet version for desserts like French toast and caramelized bananas.

Savory Uses

 
Sweet Uses

Add coconut, a touch of sugar, and maybe some chopped dried blueberries, cranberries or raisins for use on your favorite sweet recipes. See the examples in Oregon Dukkah, below.
 
 
DUKKAH IS HEALTHY

Looking for healthy flavor?

 
All this, plus great flavor!
 

OREGON DUKKAH: BUY IT READY-MADE

Instead of chickpeas, Oregon Dukkah takes advantage of Oregon’s native hazelnut crop—with delicious results. Buy it and get ready to “dip like an Egyptian”—with bread dipped in oil (make it EVOO), the classic Egyptian way.

The varieties include:

 
You can purchase individual flavors at Vibrant Flavors.com.
 
 
MAKE YOUR OWN DUKKAH

It’s easy to make dukkah from scratch. Just combine and pulse your favorite ingredients: chickpeas, nuts, seeds, spices, dried herbs, and for those who like it hot, red chile flakes.

Don’t want chickpeas or hazelnuts? Experiment with other favorite nuts (almonds, macadamia nuts, peanuts, pine nuts, pistachios) and seeds in addition to, or instead of, sesame (flax, pumpkin, sunflower, favorite).

Many seasonings work (curry, crushed red pepper flakes, smoked paprika, turmeric, za’atar). And how about some shredded coconut?

While dukkah does not necessarily have to feature hazelnuts (although classic recipes do)

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 350°F and roast the hazelnuts in a pan, in one layer, for 10 to 15 minutes, until the skins blister.

2. REMOVE the nuts from the oven, wrap them in a kitchen towel and let the nuts steam for 1 minute. To remove the skins, rub the nuts vigorously in a kitchen towel. It’s O.K. if some of the skins won’t detach. Cool completely.

2. HEAT a skillet and dry-roast the sesame seeds until they are light golden brown and fragrant (be careful not to burn them). Remove them from the skillet and let cool.

3. ROAST the remaining seeds and spices until they darken (chickpeas that are already roasted do not require further roasting). When the ingredients have cooled…

4. COMBINE with the seeds and nuts and process pulse in a food processor into a coarse consistency (you can use a mortar and pestle instead).

If you overprocess and your blend ends up as a paste, use it up quickly in a dip, as a spread on chicken or fish, or any of the uses above.

5. STORE in an airtight jar in a cool, dark place for up to three months. The dukkah will keep longer than that, but will begin to lose its flavor.

6. MAKE extra dukkah to package in a small jar and give as gifts.

[1] Homemade dukkah in an airtight job. Just blend your favorite ingredients (photo © Pexels).

[2] Dukkah ingredients. In the original Egyptian recipe, chickpeas were used instead of hazelnuts (photo © Sheri W. licensed under CC BY 2.0CC BY 2.0).

[3] The classic: dukkah with bread and olive oil (photo by Hannah Kaminsky | The Nibble.

[4] Avocado halves with dukkah (photo © Ready Made | Pexels).

[5] Scallops and bacon with dukkah (photo © Stijn | Licensed By CC 2.0).

[6] Roasted carrots with yogurt sauce and dukkah (photo © Asab974 | iStock).

[7] Dukkah as a soup garnish with fried halloumi cubes; you can substitute croutons (photo © Asab974 | iStock).

[8] Poached egg with dukkah (photo © Daria Shevtsova | Pexels.

[1] Warm potato salad with olive oil instead of mayo (photo © Idaho Potato Commission).

[2] Hormel Real Bacon Crumbles (photo © Hormel).

[3] Mixed baby/creamer potatoes (photo © Poplar Bluff Organics).

[4] Parm Crisps are available in Original, Cheddar and Sour Cream (photo © Parm Crisps).

This recipe, Roasted Potatoes with Bacon and Parmesan Crisps, was intended as a hot side dish for any time of the year.

But it’s also delicious room temperature or chilled. Since it doesn’t have mayonnaise, it’s good for a cookout or picnic food safety.

You also save the calories of the mayo.

We’re making it this weekend.

Instead of asking you to fry and crumble bacon, this recipe uses Hormel Real Bacon Crumbles (photo #2). It’s a great labor saver.

Thanks to the Idaho Potato Commission for this recipe.

Although the photo doesn’t show tri-color potatoes, get bag of mixed purple, red and white baby potatoes, or loose potatoes (baby potatoes are also called creamer potatoes—photo #3).

We couldn’t get hold of the Parm Crisps (photo #4), so we used a bit of crumbled Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Although we love Parmigiano-Reggiano, the recipe can stand on its own without any parm.

And you can serve it for any lunch or dinner as a side.
 
 
RECIPE: ROASTED POTATO SALAD WITH BACON & PARMESAN CRISPS

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 400°F. Line a baking pan with foil.

2. SPREAD the halved potatoes, broccoli and bacon in an even layer in the pan.

3. WHISK together the olive oil, garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper. Drizzle over the vegetables and stir to mix.

4. COVER with foil and bake for 30–45 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

5. PLACE in a serving dish.

6. TOP Parmesan Cheese Crisps and serve.
 
 
> MORE POTATO SALAD RECIPES
 
 
> WARM POTATO SALAD RECIPES

Ubriaco literally means “drunken” in Italian. It is a sub-category of washed-rind cheeses that are bathed in alcohol.

Ubriaco cheeses are made by bathing the young, ripening cheese in beer (photo #2), wine (photo #3) or other alcohol, which seeps through the rind and adds complex aromas and flavors to the cheese.

The alcohol used is local to the region, e.g., the prosecco ubriaco made by Moro Latteria di Moro Sergio, Veneto, Italy, and also makes an ubriaco al birra with a friend’s red ale microbrew.

And ubriaco cheeses are not limited to Italy. France and Spain, among others, make their fair share, although they may simply be called washed-rind cheeses. You have to ask your cheesemaker what the wash comprises.
 

THE HISTORY OF UBRIACO CHEESE

The original washed rind cheeses that were bathed in salt water (brine). Just a few examples are Morbier, Raclette, Taleggio and Tête de Moine.

Cheeses were washed with brine to keep them fresh. Like salt, beer and wine also have preservative qualities.

The practice of bathing or washing a ripening cheese in beer, wine, brandy, etc. dates to medieval times, when monks experimented with alcohol baths.

What made them decide to try alcohol, when a brine wash made such excellent cheeses?

Perhaps there was an excess in wine production that year, which would account for using valuable wine on the cheeses.

Or maybe a wheel of cheese accidentally fell into a barrel of beer or wine, to be discovered later.

The monks began to realize that the alcoholic beverages made the cheeses more flavorful. These “drunken” cheeses soon became popular.

The cheeses were bathed in gallons of beer or wine. the latter along with skins, seeds and other leftovers from the winemaking process.

With wine, the finished wine ready-to-bottle was not used. Rather the must of the wine was used. Must is the freshly crushed grape juice that contains the skins, seeds, and stems of the fruit; plus leftovers from the wine-making process.

Another technique was brushing the cheeses with the alcohol as it aged on shelves. This is a much more labor intensive technique, but preferred by some cheesemakers.

Wine-washed cheeses are typically immersed or brushed for about two months, up to a year, and then aged.

Other alcohols were used, too. For example:

 
Recognizable by their orange- or red/violet-tinted rinds, drunken cheeses can range in profile from buttery to mushroomy, with sweet or savory notes, depending on the recipe.
 
 
HAVE A MINI TASTING

For your next cheese adventure, try a couple of ubriacos and look for the malty notes of the beer bath, the fruity, winey notes of the wine, or the deeper fruit and alcohol notes of brandy or eau de vie.

Serve red wine-washed cheeses with dried figs and spiced nuts.

Serve white wine-washed cheeses with dried apricots, apples or pears, cashews or hazelnuts.

Serve beer-washed cheeses with grapes and sweet and/or buffalo peanuts.

ANd don’t forget that glass of beer, wine, cognac or eau-de-vie.
 
 
> CHECK OUT THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHEESES IN OUR CHEESE GLOSSARY
 
 

[1] The first washed-rind cheeses were washed in brine, a.k.a. salt water (photo © Castello Cheese).

[2] Ubriaco al birra from Moro Latteria in Veneto, Italy, bathed in microbrew red ale. Moro Latteria is a specialist in ubriaco cheeses, making cheeses with different types of beer and wine (photo © iGourmet).

[3] Ubriaco del Piave from Moro Latteria, bathed in fermenting wine must during the grape harvest (photo © iGourmet).

[4] Valdeon, a blue made with pasteurized cow and goat milks, from La Caseria in the province of Leon, Spain (photo © Forever Cheese.

Some of us remember when all yogurts made in the U.S. were tart, the way they were made in Europe and elsewhere.

Over time, to get more Americans (and their children) to enjoy yogurt, more sugar was added to diminish the tartness.

It worked: Yogurt became a best-seller in supermarkets.

For those who prefer tartness, though, Bellwether Farms Sheep’s Milk Yogurt is the delectable answer.

Fans of Greek yogurt will like the extra tartness of their sheep’s milk yogurt.

It doesn’t have a “sheepy” taste; just rich, creamy, thick and tart, with 10g total sugars per 6-ounce container (other yogurts can have twice the sugar).

Bellwether Farms, in Sonoma County (north of San Francisco), is a family farm making sheep’s cheese and yogurt since 1986. (A bellwether is the leading sheep of a flock, and has a bell on its neck.)

The sheep are a Northern European breed called East Friesian, among the best milk producing sheep in the world.

The pastures are free of herbicides and artificial fertilizers, and the sheep are never given growth hormones (they’re rBst-/rBSTfree).

The award-winning yogurts are made in:

 
The yogurts are sold at fine food stores nationwide. Here’s a store locator.

Discover more of dairy’s products at BellwetherFarms.com.
 
 
ABOUT SHEEP’S MILK YOGURT

Sheep were the first animals to be domesticated*, as mankind transitioned from nomadic hunters to sedentary farmers. The domestication date is estimated between 11,000 and 8,000 B.C.E. in Mesopotamia.

Eventually, man discovered how to transform the milk into yogurt and cheese†.

While sheep and goats** are still the staple dairy animals in many areas of the world, cows have replaced sheep in countries that have enough grazing land for the large animals.

The reason is economic: cows give a higher yield of milk.

 
 
HEALTH & NUTRITION BENEFITS

Sheep’s milk has 48% more protein than, and twice the calcium of. cow’s milk.

Is higher in vitamins A, B (B1, niacin; B2, riboflavin; B5, folic acid; and B12), C, D and E, has higher levels of biotin, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and zinc, and has less sodium.

________________

*The domestication of dogs may have occurred more than 20,000 years earlier.

†Some well-known sheep’s milk cheeses include Feta, Manchego, Ossau-Iraty, Pecorino Romano and Roquefort.

**The domestication of goats is dated at between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago in Western Asia (the area encompassing Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, the Levant, Mesopotamia, the Sinai Peninsula and Transcaucasia).

[1] Blackberry Bellwether Farms Sheep Milk Yogurt (all photos © Bellwether FarmsBellwether Farms).

[2] Blueberry Bellwether Farms Sheep Milk Yogurt.

]
[3] Plain Bellwether Farms Sheep Milk Yogurt.

[4] Spiced Apple Bellwether Farms Sheep Milk Yogurt.

[5] Strawberry Bellwether Farms Sheep Milk Yogurt.

[6] Vanilla Bellwether Farms Sheep Milk Yogurt.