Grapes to eat, drink & cook

When I moved to Chicago one of the first things that struck me was the bounty of summer fruit. I knew Michigan was famous for berries and apples, but I had no idea about the many varieties of delicious grapes there are. When I grew up, we didn't have a farmers market in my suburban town. In the grocery store there were big grapes we ate all year round from California, Washington state or Chile. They typically lacked flavor, and were fairly watery and just a little tart. Sometimes there were these fancier grapes available in the grocery store from Chile that were tiny and popped in your mouth like caviar. They came in a clamshell and cost a lot of money, my Mom would splurge on them sometimes to decorate a cheese board at a party.

At the farmers market in Chicago, I thought, wow, so many of the grapes look like the fancy clam shell grapes for parties. They tasted even better. Mouth-puckeringly bright and also deeply sweet. There is a huge range in size and character. The renowned  Mick Klug Farm grows eight varieties of seedless grapes alone.

Our midwest-grown grape varieties vary so much in sweetness, sourness and thickness of skin. This isn’t surprising because many varieties are hybrid crosses of Vitis Vinifera and those table grape species like Vitis Labrusca. The Jupiter grape, one such hybrid, is grown at Klug farm. It was created at the University of Arkansas in the late nineties, and its parents are called ‘Gold’ (Vitis vinifera) and ‘Reliance’ (Vitis Labrusca). The ‘Gold’ is part of the Muscat family. We have several great wines with Muscat in stock right now, particularly from Les Cigales dans la Fourmilière, in southern France, in the Languedoc. I thought it would be fun to try these with a dish containing the Jupiter grape. 

When I started writing this post, I intended to write about cooking with grapes. I bought several different varieties from Mick Klug, Seedling Farm and Ellis Farm. I got really into this Jupiter grape because of it’s Muscat heritage. The thing with this grape is, while it’s aromatics and flavors are beautiful, there isn’t a ton of acidity. So I didn’t want to cook this grape and make it more concentrated. Instead, I made a kind of salad/condiment with it to go on the side of a roast chicken dish. This was good but felt like fighting the nature of the thing, and I also didn’t want to give you another quick pickle recipe. Finally, I did cook the grapes, though I decided to add the tart green Himrod. The pop of acidity from this variety helps you appreciate the juicy Jupiter. It’s a little cuvee. Even when I was snacking on the grapes I loved to grab a few Himrod between a handful of Jupiter.

My most common association with cooked grapes is on pizza. I think of Italo  - California in the nineties, of Nancy Silverton stretching dough and tossing sharp cheese and grapes on a pie.

As much as I wanted to innovate a new way to use cooked grapes with a protein I wanted more to eat this pizza for lunch with a glass of Muscat. Some things are too right for the moment (seasonally, emotionally) to not indulge in a little nostalgia.

Pizza w Grapes

Highly recommend with La Polonaise, Maree rasse or Le Blanc, fruity and floral wine for a fruity and floral pie

Make or buy pizza dough (I like the wisdom of Susan Lenzer's NY Time recipe, but Bungalow x Middlebrow also sells dough, and they sell Klug grapes too!)

Heat your oven as hot as it will go. Take the pizza dough from the fridge and let it come to a malleable temp, about room temp on this seventy-five degree days. Shape your pizza dough by first making a little indentation with your fingertips around the edge of the ball, about 1/2" from its edge - this helps form the crust. Then stretch it by gently shifting its weight between your fists. Place on a well-floured baking sheet or pizza peel if you have it. Top with a sprinkle of salt and olive oil right away. Put every kind of cheese you feel is appropriate that you have in your fridge on there (I had a little bit of gorgonzola, highly recommend a blue cheese with the grapes, but also a little bit of fresh ricotta and a bunch of ricotta salata worked nicely) then top with grapes. Put pizza in oven and bake, I had my oven at 525 degrees and baked for about 7 minutes. Top with whatever greens or herbs you can find (I had some nasturtiums - but arugula would feel more consistent with the other flavors) Slice and eat!