Coca am Recapte and Chopo Jumilla Monastrell Rose on a Summer’s Day

 Our #WorldWineTravel group is exploring the wines from Murcia and Valencia (Spain) with our fantastic host, Cindy from Grape Experiences. I am pairing my wine with a Spanish version of pizza and it is the most delicious pizza called Coca am Recapte (pizza with everything!)

Let me start by telling you a few things about the wine from Murcia and Valencia. I learned from Cindy that this area is known for the Monastrell grape. The area has optimum growing conditions for this grape with its mountains, terroir, and climate.  The vines grow in stony earth, sandy conditions, and limestone, which give it some of its unique flavors.  The Monastrell grape grows in small compact clusters of dark grapes with thick skins.  It grows best in hot climates with long growing seasons.

Monastrell wines are big wines and tend to go with heartier dishes. We chose the Chopo Jumilla Monastrell Rose wine to see if it could hold up to our summer weather and wood-fired pizza.  Let me just say, it worked.

The rose is a dry one that was bright with strong fruit flavors. The wine has a gorgeous raspberry color that is enhanced by its bottle and a fun glass cork.  We tend to serve our roses on the cooler side, but this wine benefitted from warming up a bit, changing the whole profile. Chilled, this wine has little body and is weak but slightly warmed it opened up and developed full flavors.  Ours was $14 a bottle and worth every penny.

If I am interesting you in Spanish wines now, take a look at what I have written this year. This group has studied Spanish wines all year, so now you can get a great look at these delicious spirits.

January: Our First Rioja
February: Chicken Empanadas and Azimut Cava
March: Exploring Castilla y Leon through Wine and Food
April: One Grape: Three Unique Experiences with Albarino

May: Calatayud, Aragon Wines: Evodia + Fully Loaded Pork Taquitos

June: Basque Country Wines for Beginners and Great Food Pairings

July: Pollo con Ajoy y Limon and Spanish Hard Ciders

So the pizza we made is an ongoing project after purchasing an Ooni pizza oven this summer. I originally purchased it for camping, but we are having a blast using it at home and with our friends.  This pizza, called Coca am Recapte is a little different from the original.  For one, in Spain, the pizza is more oval-shaped. Second, most Spanish pizza doesn't use cheese and we added a bit of feta to it. This pizza was so delicious. We made a simple sauce like the Spanish use on Tomato Bread. Then we added a bunch of sauteed onions and mushrooms, thinly sliced tomatoes, and topped with some feta.  We used fresh garden tomatoes, and that just put the pizza over the top. Check out the full recipe below.

You'll want to check out these other posts about Murcia and Valencia from the group of bloggers below. There is a ton of great information from this group and the food here is incomparable!

• Monastrell from Murcia and Valencia Paired with Lamb-Beef Burgers and El Taberno from Gwendolyn Alley at Wine Predator......Gwendolyn Alley
• Getting to Know the Grape Known in Spain as Monastrell from Linda Whipple at My Full Wine Glass.
• Rosados from Jumilla from Susannah Gold on Avvinare.
• Valencia Inspires My First Paella from Jeff Burrows at Food Wine Click!
• Light up the Grill and Open that Bottle of Jumilla Wine from Wendy Klik at A Day in the Life on the Farm.
• To Valencia with Sobrasada, Other Spanish Nibbles, and Enrique Mendoza Alicante La Tremenda Monastrell 2018 from Camilla Mann at Culinary Adventures with Camilla.
• Muscatel Sparkling Joy by 103-Year-Old Bodegas Reymos - First Wine Cooperative in Valencia, Spain from Pinny Tam at Chinese Food & Wine Pairings.
• Coca am Recapte and Chopo Jumilla Monastrell Rose on a Summer’s Day by Terri Steffes at Our Good Life
• 2018 Bodegas Juan Gil Jumilla + Bison Burgers by Martin Redmond at ENOFYLZ Wine Blog
• On Monastrell, Three Wines from D.O. Jumilla and Foods for Pairing by Cindy Rynning at Grape Experiences.

Yield

2

Author

Terri Steffes

Prep time

20 Min

Cook time

2 Min

inactive time

5 Min

Total time

27 Min

Coca am Recapte (Pizza with Everything)

This Spanish version of pizza is absolutely divine when made with garden-fresh tomaotes.

Ingredients

• 1 12" Boboli pizza crust
• 1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 Roma tomato
• 2 garden tomatoes
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat your Ooni oven to 900 degrees F.
2. Bring a pot of water to boil, add in garden tomatoes and Roma, cook for one minute then plunge into an ice bath.  Peel tomatoes. Coarse chop and remove seeds.
3. In a blender, blend the two garden tomatoes and the garlic until the tomatoes are pulpy but not soupy.  If the mixture gets too watery, pour off the extra juice.  Set aside.
4. Melt butter in a saucepan and sautee onions and mushrooms until golden brown.  Set aside. 
5. Remove the crust from the packaging. Spread the tomato mixture on the crust. Slice Roma tomato and layer on top of the tomato mixture. Spoon the onion and mushrooms on top of the tomatoes.  Sprinkle on feta cheese.
6. Place pizza on the pizza peel and slide it into the Ooni.  Turn pizza as needed to get an even bake.  Remove after approximately one minute.  Serve immediately.

Notes:

We usually make our own pizza crust. However, our experience with Tomato Bread made us rethink that and so we decided to use the Boboli. It worked beautifully.

When we fire up the Ooni, we also make several pizzas at once and make individual-sized pizzas. It's a lot of work to only make one pizza.

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @tsteffes on instagram and hashtag it #ourgoodliferecipe