It was nearly four years ago when I created a dish with baked eggplant, zucchini, tomato and rice.  Tonight I decided to make it again, and to try two different wines with it.  The dish itself came out beautifully:

My first wine choice was what was left of a marvelous wine from the Monsant region of Spain, Dido La Universal 2014.  I had bought this wine in a store in Barcelona in 2006, and subsequently consumed a case back home of the 2004 vintage.  Much to my delight, a store in New York offered some of the 2014 vintage, so I snapped it up.  It was great with this dish.

With my second helping, however, I needed more wine, so I turned to my son’s 2015 Unsanctioned wine, an Arizona blend of Petite Sirah and Sangiovese.  It went very well, too, much to my delight.

But I was not done yet.  Barbara was out for choir practice tonight, so she could not object to the smell of my cooking peppers.  I cut up three sweet red bell peppers, and I used the same cazuela (or cassola in Catalan dialect) to cook them slowly on the stovetop.

The peppers were then finished with garlic, sherry vinegar, and Sicilian anchovies.

Last night I had whipped up some almond milk ricotta (Kite Hill brand), and I also pulled out a jar of Olive Patè Nere (black olive paste) from Puglia.  I toasted a slice of Tuscan Pane (fancy name for white bread with no salt) in olive oil in the same cazuela.  A layer of paté, followed by the ricotta, and topped with the peppers completed the dish.

Another glass or two of the Unsanctioned wine, and I was transported to another world.  Never had a better match.