Our 2nd Winner for the “Wine & Dine on Nella’s Dime” Contest!

Our mouths are watering just looking at Kelsey’s photos from her winning contest entry. This month’s featured variety was our Broccoli, Feta & Toasted Cashew Ravioli paired with a 2011 Cline Vineyards, North Coast Viognier. So without further ado, we’ll let Kelsey tell you rest….

I was so excited to find out I had won the “Wine and Dine on Nella’s Dime” contest, as I had been dying to host a dinner party for all my girlfriends!  Slowly but surely each of my friends have been moving to Boston so this contest provided a perfect excuse to finally get everyone together.

The party consisted of a combination of 7 friends, old and new: college friends, study abroad friends, and new people I had met since moving to Boston 2.5 years ago.   The prep work for the ravioli and dessert was relatively minimal, as a lot of the ingredients were things lying around the house and all my friends were great in offering to provide pieces of the meal.

The evening started off with a bit of sangria to get the party started, provided by my self-proclaimed “mixologist” roommate, Kerry.  She certainly has a way with her sangria! 

Marwa is a whiz with appetizers and got together one of her specialties, Red Pepper Bruschetta with Goat Cheese and Capers.  She started off by sauteeing the peppers with a bit of olive oil, toasted up the baguette, and topped each slice with peppers, capers and goat cheese.  Once assembled, she popped them under the broiler and voila, we have delicious red pepper bruschetta that everyone LOVED!

 

After enjoying the bruschetta and sangria it was time to bring out the salad and entrée! We had Annie in charge of the salad, who is famous for her fabulous salads that are sure to delight every guest.  She used baby arugula, candied walnuts, dried cranberries, strawberries, and goat cheese and mixed it all with a creamy balsamic vinaigrette.  The salad sure went quickly!

For the ravioli, I chose to make a simple Beurre Blanc sauce to go along with the broccoli ravioli, as a relatively healthy variation of Chicken Broccoli Ziti.  Along with the sauce, I cooked up some garlic, shallots, and chicken to jazz it up, and finished it all with a squeeze of lemon and fresh basil.

 

 

Once the ravioli and salad were ready, we all clambered to get our plates together.  Everyone raved about how the delicious entrée and I was delighted to have everyone together having such a great time!

Of course we can’t forget our delicious white wine pairing, Cline Viognier, that perfectly complimented the flavors of the ravioli and Beurre Blanc sauce. 

While I do love to cook, baking is really my specialty.  I whipped up my famous Lemon Bars, per a few friends’ requests.  This recipe has been tweaked over the years and I finally found the perfect combination that delighted everyone.  I mixed them up this time and used Meyer lemons rather than standard lemons, and it really kicked the bars up a notch!

After we enjoyed dessert (and every last drop of wine!), it was on to catch up time with all the girls.  With everyone’s hectic schedules, finding the time to get together with everyone proves to be very difficult.  It was wonderfully refreshing to gather everyone in one place with such amazing food and fantastic company.  All in all, the party was a success and everyone left happy and satisfied.  Thank you so much to Nella for providing me with the opportunity to host this party for my friends, fun was had by all!

Thank you Kelsey for this fantastic write-up– looks like you had a great time and boy did you make a delicious meal with our Broccoli Ravioli! If you’re looking for this variety, please check out the Where to Find section of our website and visit a farmer’s market or specialty store near you.

 

2nd Wine & Dine on Nella’s Dime

And we’re back! We were thrilled with the outcome of the launch of our “Wine & Dine on Nella’s Dime” and eager to see what y’all have in store for us this month.

So without further ado this month’s variety is: Broccoli, Feta & Toasted Cashew. This ravioli features lightly blanched broccoli with salty feta, rich, toasted cashews and a fresh squeeze of lemon juice for a truly unique flavor. We like to pair our Broccoli, Feta & Toasted Cashew Ravioli with a bit of butter and some fresh basil, grilled chicken for a healthier take on the classic “chicken ziti broccoli” or with spicy italian sausage. But don’t take it from us, we want to hear your ideas!

Also, this month we’re doing things a bit differently in terms of wine pairing. This month we’ll have both a red and white pairing option for our winner to decide upon based on their preparation.

White Option: 2011 Cline Vineyards, North Coast Viognier: Viognier is most famous for producing rich and exotically perfumed wines from the Rhone Valley of France. This producer is replicating those characteristics in the North Coast of California. Loaded with luscious pineapple, peach, and apricot flavors and accented by floral and citrus notes. Rich enough to stand up to the buttery cashew and slightly off-dry to compliment the salty Feta. *Bonus* This wine was selected by a panel of expert Boston sommeliers as the best white wine under $15 in the Boston Globe’s annual Plonkapalooza Challenge!

Red Option: 2010 Jose’ Maria da Fonseca, Periquita: This is a fun littlewine from Portugal, a growing region known more for their fortified wines than table wines. It’s a blend of the indigenous Castelao grape (74%), Trincadeira (14%), and Aragonez (12%). It’s great with lighter fare due to it’s soft, supple tannins and youthful fruit characteristics. Notes of fresh strawberries and cherries, some grilled herbs and spice but finishes with a brisk strike of acidity making it an extremely versitle food wine. Awesome with pork sausage and a light red sauce.

So here’s the deal…. Nella will provide you with a featured ravioli flavor of the month to share with up to 12 of your closest friends and family, along with the perfect wine pairing chosen by our friend Mike O’Connell, the expert from Upper Falls Liquors in Newton with the renowned food blog, Rooftop Gourmet.

How to Win:
Submit your proposal detailing your ideal dinner party start to finish! (ie: who will you share this meal with? what other food items will be served? What’s the overall feel/ theme? etc.)

Details:
You have until January 10, 2013 to submit your detailed proposal and agreement via email and Nella Pasta will chose the winner on January 11th.  The lucky winner will receive 4 lbs of ravioli and wine for up to 12 guests (to be picked up at our kitchen in South Boston) and have until the end of this month to host their dinner party (write ups must be submitted by January 30th).  The menu must consist of an appetizer, Nella Pasta entree and dessert of your choice.  After the celebration, we ask you to send us a brief summary of the details of your night including the menu and a minimum of 6 photos documenting all the food and fun! Your dinner party will be shared on our blog and through media channels inc. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

How to Enter:
Please fill out the documents below and email them back to us at nellapasta@gmail by January 10th. Winner will be notified January 11th

Dinner Proposal
Wine & Dine Proposal Agreement


So get your creative thinking caps on! We can’t wait to see what delicious ideas you all can come up with!
-Leigh & Rachel

Our First Winner for the “Wine & Dine on Nella’s Dime” Contest!

We at Nella are soo excited that the first month of our Dinner Contest was such a hit! We got lots of great submissions from all of our loyal fans… it was really hard to choose just one!  A big thank you goes out to Ali Holliday and all of her friends and family that took part in her amazing dinner party!  Ali really went above and beyond anything we could have ever expected; the party looked beautiful and the food delicious!

Although we had previously mentioned that we would be running this contest on a monthly basis, due to all of the holiday festivities during the month of December, we decided to take a month off.  So the contest will be back up and running at the beginning of January….and we cant wait to see what you have in store for us!

So, please enjoy all the pictures and details of Ali’s Party….and try not to drool too much!

La Vita e Bella with Nella

On November 30, 2012, I hosted my very first apartment-warming party with 14 new and old friends, thanks to Nella! I’ve been craving a dinner housewarming party since moving into my adorable apartment in May, so winning the “Wine and Dine on Nella’s Dime” provided the perfect excuse to do so.

The party featured my favorite dishes and ingredients from my previous home cities, and also my favorites from my new home in Boston, which of course includes Nella Pasta.  There wasn’t a “type” of cuisine—the theme was “my favorite foods from my favorite places… including my new home.”

The preparation took many trips to the grocery store (cardamom pods weren’t sold at Trader Joes, but tahini paste was!), a trip to Crate and Barrel to buy new glasses (they have these really cute stemless wine glasses for $3 that you can put in the dishwasher—perfect), a visit to my favorite Christmas decoration flower shop (Leonard’s in Beverly) and borrowing extra tables from my favorite sister and parents, in order to create a space in the entryway for people to refill on drinks and food (I have a small apartment, so I needed to use every square foot!).  I was pretty happy with how the entryway and the décor turned out…

For apps, we started with crackers, honey chevre (labeled by the cheese labels sold at Sur La Table), pita chips (I like the kinds sold at Trader Joe’s), carrots, celery, multiple kinds of hummus, grapes, spinach and artichoke dip (that empty bowl I the pic above!), as well as a carrot salad from Rose Bakery, my favorite hole-in-the-wall bakery in the 9th arrondissement in Paris.  The cookbook from Rose Bakery, Breakfast, Lunch, Tea, is one of my favorites.  The carrot salad is super easy to do—we actually made it at the last minute, after learning that two guests were gluten-and dairy-free!  We happened to have the ingredients around the house, so it worked out perfectly.

After mingling for a while (and by mingling I mean drinking champagne while watching the Stanford football game (I’m a proud alum) and listening to Christmas music on Pandora station “Mariah Carey Christmas”), we brought out dinner!

Nella Pasta, with simply olive oil, was definitely everyone’s favorite part of the night.  We ate ALL of it.

In addition to Nella Pasta, we served “Roasted Butternut Squash with Sweet Spices, Lime and Green Chilli” from the Plenty cookbook, a best-selling cookbook in England. The chef leads one of my favorite restaurants in London, called Nopi.  Think delicious, creative, surprisingly healthy small plates, farm to table, in a very hip atmosphere. Ah I miss it!  I chose the salad to complement the pasta—very New England fall (with a spicy twist), in my opinion.

We also enjoyed a simple arugula salad (50% lemon juice, 50% olive oil) with shaved parmesan.  It was all yummy, and I need to give Greg the credit for doing most of it!  I put little cards in front of the dishes (included the DELICIOUS wine pairing) to describe what everything was.

For dessert, I went back to the Rose Bakery cookbook… The bakery is actually well-known to the Parisian locals, and it’s famous for carrot cake.  So we made the carrot cupcakes! They were fun to make, they looked pretty, and they were delicious!

The food was yummy at my party, and Stanford’s football win coupled with Christmas music certainly helped keep my spirits high, but my absolute favorite part of the party was the people that were there.  We all stayed until midnight chatting, eating, laughing.   Here are some pictures of the fantastic friends that warmed my apartment…

Newly engaged Katie, my friend from boarding school, was the first to attack the pasta!

Ana Maria, my roommate in college who lived in Florence with me while I was abroad, went back for seconds later on!

The wine pairing was delicious. Whitney (left, friend from Stanford who lived in Paris with me), Brandon (right, new friend/ Elizabeth’s boyfriend!), and Elizabeth (next to Brandon, friend from work) are all major foodies, and they licked their plates clean!

On the right is Katherine, my friend from boarding school, and next to her is her lovely sister Annie, aka my new dance partner.

On the right is Nick (a friend who went to Brown with Greg) and next to him is Cole (another Brown crew friend!).  I guess they needed guy time in the kitchen, away from the girly Christmas music.  :)

I don’t have any pictures of Pumi and his two friends, but they brought the party too!

Ending with chocolate truffles and some dancing, I can truly say that my apartment has been warmed with wonderful friends and food.

Grazie mille Nella for the pasta and wine!

And that’s a wrap! Again, a huge thank you to our winner and to Mike from Rooftop Gourmet for his excellent Wine choice. We look forward to receiving a new batch of submissions in January!

Wine & Dine on Nella’s Dime

Nella Pasta is excited to announce the kick-off to our new monthly dinner party contest!

What does that mean?

Nella will provide you with a featured ravioli flavor of the month to share with up to 12 of your closest friends and family, along with the perfect wine pairing chosen by our friend Mike O’Connell, the expert from Upper Falls Liquors in Newton with the renowned food blog, Rooftop Gourmet.

How to Win:

Submit your proposal detailing your ideal dinner party start to finish! (ie: who will you share this meal with? what other food items will be served? What’s the overall feel/ theme? etc.)

Details:

You have until November 6, 2012 to submit your detailed proposal and agreement via email and Nella Pasta will chose the winner on November 7.  The lucky winner will receive ravioli and wine for up to 12 guests (to be picked up at our kitchen in South Boston) and have until the end of this month to host their dinner party.  The menu must consist of an appetizer, Nella Pasta entree and dessert of your choice.  After the celebration, we ask you to send us a brief summary of the details of your night including the menu and a minimum of 6 photos documenting all the food and fun! Your dinner party will be shared on our blog and through media channels inc. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Ravioli of November: Roasted Cauliflower, Rosemary & Gruyere Cheese. A brand new variety that makes you welcome the colder months with the rich, nutty flavors of roasted Cauliflower and Gruyere.

Wine Pairing: 2010 Bibi Graetz Casamatta Bianco from Tuscany. This wine is 90% Vermentino, 10% Moscato Bianco and has lovely aromas of stone fruit, peach blossom, and wild herbs, with a full rich mouthfeel and zingy acidity.

 

 

How to Enter:

Please fill out the documents below and email them back to us at nellapasta@gmail by Nov 6, 2012. Winner will be notified November 7th.

Dinner Proposal Document

Proposal Agreement

So get your creative thinking caps on! We can’t wait to see what delicious ideas you all can come up with!!

-The Nella Team

 

Available Now…Everywhere

We all set certain quotas for ourselves to know when we’ve made it. Sometimes, it can be a dollar amount to purchase a new bag/ mortgage/ vacation/ etc. Sometimes its a title like “Executive” or “Head.” Other times, its finding your product in a place that you have immortalized your entire life. For us, that’s Dean & DeLuca.

The black lettering on the stark white sign behind the Today show, Felicity’s place of work, and the decadent hors d’oeuvres we savor on Christmas Eve. It’s a name that few don’t recognize, and we can’t begin to express how excited we are to be a part of it. Today we shipped off our locally sourced and made ravioli, a product with three years of hard work behind it, in a frozen truck destined to the Dean & DeLuca headquarters where it awaits orders from all over the country. For the very first time, we’re happy to say yes, you can order our products online! For all the very patient people who e-mailed us in the midst of our DailyCandy “Start Small, Go Big” win, our friends and family outside of MA who have cheered us on despite never having a taste, and everyone else, everywhere, this is for you! Finally, an opportunity to purchase our ravioli online and have it shipped right to your door. We couldn’t be happier about our new venture with Dean & DeLuca and can’t wait to hear feedback from new customers. Shop away!