Our Good Life participates in affiliate marketing and other forms of advertising. We only recommend products and services we believe in and think they will be of use to you.

#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
Print
Garlic Bread Chaffles

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?
Tag @tsteffes on instagram and hashtag it #OurGoodLifeRecipes
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.

Would you like to comment?

  1. Lasagne is one of my favorite foods....
    consume almost every other week...
    Thank you for sharing....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love that recipe Terri. Sounds like it would be a very nice pairing with the L'Ecole 41.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nothing is better than a nice Italian dish and a great wine. That looks tasty.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The noodleless lasagna sounds lovely! And with a savory waffle on the side?! Brilliant.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This lasagna is on different level! I would love to have a taste on it. Yum!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lasagna is one of my faves, but I have never tried that no noodle lasagne. Looks delicious! -LYNNDEE

    ReplyDelete
  7. This looks really good. We make lasagna often. My family really enjoys it. This one looks amazing too.

    ReplyDelete
  8. My son would love those chaffles, and I'd bet they'd go with lots of wines! PS Hope you're making tons of money off those advertisements.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The no-noodle lasagne sounds delightful! We don't eat tons of meat so it would have never occurred to me to do a sausage in tomato sauce but thanks for the idea! The pairing with the wine sounds excellent too.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Gooey, cheesy, and delicious! Your pairing sounds spot-on for the cooler weather upon us; all we need is a bottle of Merlot to complete the meal. Two thumbs up!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sounds like a great alternate to lasagna! I am sure that my family will love it for dinner tonight!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh I need this no noodle lasagna and merlot in my life. Sounds like a perfect Friday night to me!

    ReplyDelete
  13. That looks amazingly delicious and cheesy! I kinda want to swim in the pan with a glass of Merlot in hand! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm not a big wine drinker. But I love me some lasagna. My son fell in love with my homemade lasagna and will eat it like its going out of style. He would be disappointed if I didn't add the pasta though.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Nikki Wayne9:49 PM

    I'm so in love with Italian cuisine,this looks so satisfying,yum!

    ReplyDelete
  16. interesting meal.! love the concept and sounds like a great pairing.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Wow ! What a fun recipe to make with teens !!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Looks like a tasty twist on lasagna!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Lasagna without the carby noodles - love it! And I'm already thinking about making those "chaffles." Great pairing!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Didn't realize L'Ecole No. 41 has been in the top 100 for 14 years, kudos to them! And to your lasagna and bread substitute. I've heard about using a similar dough, if you will, for pizza. I don't have a waffle maker but I bet cooking it in a fry pan will work.

    ReplyDelete

Welcome! If you liked what you read, please take a moment to share by tweeting, pinning or yumming! Much appreciated!