#MerlotMe and No Noodle Lasagne

This marks the sixth year that our #WinePairingWeekend group has celebrated #MerlotMe.  The second weekend in October, every year! This is my first time at the event, and I am so excited to be apart of this fun, fun time!

I received a bottle of L'Ecole Merlot for free in exchange for my honest review.

Let's just get straight to it and talk about this wine!  L'Ecole No. 41 is one of Washington State's first artisan, family-owned wineries.  The label is a rendering of the Frenchtown School where they are housed.  Grapes are grown in the unique terroir of Walla Walla Valley vineyards.  They grow 100% of their wines for more than three decades.  They have been recognized by Wine & Spirits magazine as a Top 100 Winery of the Year for fourteen consecutive years. The name L'Ecole No. 41 is French for "the school" located in district number 41.  

We received a bottle of the 2017 Merlot Columbia Valley.  Our notes include:

Aroma: blackberries, graphite, rose petal and plum

Body: Full bodied

Tasting: Baking spices, cocoa with a long finish of fine-grained tannins

Composition: 81% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc, 3% Malbec, 2% Petit Verdot

Alcohol: 14.5%

Released: April 2020

Vineyard: Estate Seven Hills, Bacchus & Dionysus, Candy Mountain, Klipsun, Weinbau, Pepper Bridge, Stone Tree

Vintage:  2017

Suggested Retail: $25

My husband and I wanted to pair this delicious wine with a no pasta, lasagne-like dish.  The deep tomato sauce, rich sausage, and creamy fresh mozzarella were what we decided to make.  We browned a kielbasa in a cast-iron skillet with garden onions and green peppers, the last from our garden. We added two jars of our favorite pasta sauce (from The Hill here in Saint Louis.)  We poured that into a pasta dish and added fresh mozzarella cheese on the top.  We baked it at 375 degrees until the cheese completely melted and browned a bit on top.  We served it with "chaffles" bread made in a mini waffle maker and a big green salad.

The wine complemented the big red tomato sauce and brought out the richness of the cheese and kielbasa. Sometimes a heavier bodied wine would overpower this dish but this Merlot is medium-bodied and worked beautifully.  We seasoned the chaffles with roasted garlic, and still, the Merlot was a delicious sip with these strong flavors.

Yield: 4

Author: Terri Steffes

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Garlic Bread Chaffles

A low carb bread substitute that has multiple purposes. Try this one with pasta dishes!

Prep time: 4 MinCook time: 12 Mininactive time: 2 MinTotal time: 18 Min

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1/3 c shredded mozerella cheese
• 1 T fresh roasted garlic
• 1/4 t baking powder
• 2 T almond flour

Instructions

1. Heat mini waffle maker
2. Beat egg.
3. Add in cheese, flour, baking powder and mix well.
4. Fold in garlic.
5. Add a sprinkling of shredded cheese to the waffle maker.
6. add 1/4 batter to the wafflemaker,  sprinkle more cheese on top of the batter, then close the lid and cook for 3 minutes.  
7. Remove and cool on a baking rack.  Repeat until batter is done.

Calories

67.13

Fat (grams)

5.01

Sat. Fat (grams)

1.74

Carbs (grams)

1.38

Fiber (grams)

0.45

Net carbs

0.92

Sugar (grams)

0.30

Protein (grams)

4.40

Sodium (milligrams)

106.32

Cholesterol (grams)

53.80

Did you make this recipe?

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Created using The Recipes Generator

#MerlotMe continues with these amazing bloggers and their informational and delicious posts.  Go and check each one of them as they will blow your minds with their pairings and information.

• Andrea at The Quirky Cork shares "Three Turkish Merlots"
• Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla shares "Merlot: A Varietal That Plays Well with Others"
• Cindy at Grape Experiences shares "Sip Merlot with Vegetarian Favorites"
• Deanna at Asian Test Kitchen shares "Fall Vegan Menu Paired with 2016 Napa Merlots"
• David at Cooking Chat shares "Merlot Food Pairing: Tips and Favorites"
• Gwendolyn at Wine Predator shares "Meatloaf and #MerlotMe with Sonoma’s Selby and Columbia Valley’s L’Ecole No. 41"
• Jane at Always Ravenous shares "Merlot Pairing: Baked Pasta with Sausage Ragù"
• Jeff at Food Wine Click! shares "A Tale of Two Merlots at the Grill"
• Jennifer at Vino Travels shares “Fall is Here! Warm up with a Merlot and Pot Roast Pairing”
• Lauren at The Swirling Dervish shares "October is #MerlotMe Month: Here’s What I’ve Been Sipping"
• Linda at My Full Wine Glass shares "Kicking off #MerlotMe in the Pacific time zone”
• Liz at What's in that Bottle? shares "Make Room for Merlot!"
• Lori at Exploring the Wine Glass shares "Leaves on the Ground and #MerlotMe in my Glass"
• Lynn at Savor the Harvest shares "Next Gen Merlot From Where It All Started"
• Martin at Enofylz shares "A Meatless #MerlotMe Redux"
• Nicole at Somms Table shares "5 #MerlotMe Nights"
• Payal at Keep the Peas shares “Kicking Off Autumn With #Merlotme”
• Robin at Crushed Grape Chronicles shares "Merlot from elegant to badass. Time to #Merlotme."
• Rupal at Syrah Queen shares “#MerlotMe - Best Food Pairings For Merlot”
• Terri at Our Good Life shares "Merlot Me with Noodless Lasagne"
• Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm shares "Woohoooooooo....It is #MerlotMe month"