Pairings: Minerally chardonnay pairs well with chestnuts

Our Wine of the Week, Amici 2016 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay ($25), will dazzle lovers of the varietal with its suave complexity.

Aromas suggest fruit, especially apple, pear, honeydew melon, Meyer lemon and kiwi. On the palate, these qualities are punctuated by little bursts of minerality and a whisper of smoke. Although the wine is not ponderous, it will reward you if you want to pay attention to its kaleidoscope of aromas, flavors and textures.

The texture is lush and plush, yet the wine remains bright enough that your palate does not grow weary.

You’ll enjoy this wine with all manner of corn, including polenta, winter squash, sweet potatoes, roasted chicken, roasted carrot soup, saffron rice, scallop chowder, fettuccine Alfredo, spaghetti squash fritters, oven-roasted cauliflower,and roasted fennel.

The wine also shows itself well with chestnuts, which brings us to today’s inspiration. In the cooler months, the streets of downtown Palermo, Sicily, are filled with vendors roasting chestnuts over tall, thin metal roasters. They sell them in newspaper folded into cones, and people munch on them while walking through town. The evocative aroma is everywhere. It is that aroma, along with the flavor and scent of the classic Sicilian cheese, Caciocavallo, that serve as inspiration for today’s recipe. The cheese is available at Oliver’s Markets and other stores with good cheese sections.

Chestnut Risotto

Makes 4 to 6 servings as a main course, ?or 6 to 8 as a first course

6-8 medium chestnuts

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

1 shallot, minced

1 small celery stalk, minced

2 garlic cloves, minced

- Kosher salt

2 cups Vialone Nano or Carnaroli rice

3/4 cup dry white wine

7-8 cups homemade chicken stock or vegetable stock, hot

- Black pepper in a mill

3 ounces smoked Caciacavallo (a Sicilian cheese) or smoked mozzarella, in small pieces

1 lemon, cut in half

3 tablespoons minced Italian parsley

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

As the oven heats, prepare the chestnuts. To do so, wipe each one clean with a damp tea towel. Set the cleaned chestnuts on your work surface and use a sharp knife to make an X on each one, cutting just through the skin. Set the chestnuts, scored side up, on a baking sheet and sprinkle or spritz them generously with water. Set on the middle rack of the oven and roast until the chestnuts are tender when pierced with a toothpick or bamboo skewer, about 15 to 20 minutes. The skins will curl back when they are done. Let the chestnuts cool until they are easy to handle. Pull off the skins; set one chestnut aside and use a sharp knife to mince the others. Cut the remaining chestnut into very thin slices. Set the minced and sliced chestnuts aside.

Put the olive oil and butter in a deep sauté pan or saucepan set over medium-low heat; add the shallot and celery and sauté until very soft and fragrant, about 12 minutes. Do not let the vegetables burn. Add the garlic and season with salt.

Add the rice and sauté, stirring constantly, until it turns milky white, about 2 minutes. Increase the heat to medium high, add the wine and stir until it is nearly evaporated.

Begin to add chicken stock, ½ cup at a time, stirring until the liquid is completely absorbed. Adjust the heat as needed so that the liquid neither evaporates immediately nor just sits in the pan. Continue adding stock, ½ cup at a time, stirring all the while. After the rice has about tripled in size, taste a grain for doneness. Reduce the stock additions to ¼ cup at a time and continue stirring until the rice is tender, with just a bit of resistance. At this point, there should be about 1/2 cup of stock left; if there is not, add some water to the pot.

Fold in the minced chestnuts, season with salt and pepper, and fold in the cheese. Add the juice of half the lemon and stir in half the parsley. Cut the remaining half lemon into wedges.

Taste and correct for salt and pepper. Stir in the remaining stock, divide the risotto among individual soup plates, garnish with parsley, a chestnut slice or two and a lemon wedge, and enjoy right away.

Michele Anna Jordan is the author of 24 books to date. Email her at michele@micheleannajordan.com.