spring vegetable {goat cheese} dip.

Oh, how I love a hot and cheesy dip.

Typically reserved for our football gatherings in the fall and winter, you can imagine my delight when I stumbled upon a cheesy dip designed for the spring. A hot and cheesy dip packed with fresh flavor from all of my favorite spring vegetables? Yes, please.

Now, don’t me wrong: This dip is  still creamy, cheesy, and totally dreamy – thanks to the béchamel base it starts with, and plenty of white cheddar and goat cheese. The goat cheese makes for a perfect pairing with spring vegetables like asparagus and artichokes – which make for a perfect pairing with – drumroll, please – wine! Yes, wine. It can be done, and it can be done well.

If you’re not into wine – or, let me rephrase – if you’re into drinking wine but don’t know too much about it, spring veggies like artichokes and asparagus are a no-no when it comes to vino. They contain certain chemicals that can make the wine taste off, or even rancid (especially red wines).

You can imagine the predicament I found myself in here. I was obsessing over two things: a springtime dinner party, and a wine pairing dinner party. But how could a springtime dinner party not pay homage to all of the fabulous vegetables springtime has to offer? I’m not one of those super-fussy people who say X wine must be served with X food, but at the same time, if I’m hosting a wine pairing dinner party, well, then the pairings need to make sense!

Enter Sauvignon Blanc. Yes, my personal favorite variety of white. Purely a coincidence, I swear! After doing a little research, I learned that it just happens to be an appropriate pairing for my precious spring wine-hating vegetables.

And appropriate it was. I served a Wairau River Sauvignon Blanc, because I had found it on sale at Whole Foods and already had a couple of bottles chilled. This is a New Zealand wine from the Marlborough region, which produces my favorite grapes for Sauvignon Blanc. Kim Crawford and Oyster Bay are also great. It’s on the fruity side, but not overly sweet – I would describe it as crisp more than anything. Stick the bottle in the freezer for a 10 or 15 minutes before serving for a taste of heaven on a hot summer day.

The wine worked equally well with the second part of the starter course, a bright and lemony snap pea and arugula salad. I used this recipe as a starting point, also found in my favorite cookbook ever. I doubled everything and threw in a container of baby arugula for another hit of greens. I also crisped the prosciutto in the olive oil first, and then took that prosciutto-infused oil and used it for the dressing.

We all loved this first course, but I must admit – I may have been the only person who truly paid attention to the relationship between the wine and the food.

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Pssst! This post was featured on Bon Appétit (!!!) via their super-cool feature Bloggers Cook BA. Check it!