Cooking with Dennis–Lamb Burgers & Pinot Noir to the Rescue

It’s a Sunday night Greek dinner. Since it has been a busy weekend, I have opted for a dinner that’s quick yet full of flavor! We are making lamb burgers on pita bread, homemade tzatziki sauce with lots of fresh dill and a quick Greek salad. I’ll be pairing it with a French Pinot Noir. I tried to find a Greek Xinomavro but that wasn’t successful, so I went French as I love a light red with lamb.

I’m a fan of Greek cooking for a lot of reasons but the top reason is fresh simplicity. It’s one of those places that really specializes in quality ingredients and quick simple preparations. Spain and Greece really excel in this type of cuisine, and they are both at the top of my list for world cuisine.

Let’s start with the wine we chose to pair with the lamb burgers. We found this pinot from Central Market on Lovers Lane in Dallas, Nuiton-Beaunoy Bourgogne Pinot Noir. For the price point, under $20 bucks, it shines.

Old World Pinot really does bring the subtle earthy notes over the fresh bright fruit notes typical from the New World. It’s really hard to get anything under $20 bucks that’s of good quality from this region of the world but this bottle delivers. And it’s perfect with the lamb!

For my lamb burgers I’ve mixed in some grated onion and garlic and spiced it with salt, pepper, fennel, lemon zest and fresh mint. I like to grate the onion & garlic in this preparation as it just melts into the lamb during cooking. I also use fennel seed and chop it up right before I mix it into the meat. Chopping the fennel seed just tastes better. And it’s fresher than ground fennel. That’s it for the lamb burgers. I shape them to fit in the pita and grill them up!

For the tzatziki sauce I also grate the cucumber and garlic into the Greek yogurt. The key to this sauce is lemon juice, the zest of the lemon and lot of fresh dill. You can mix this up early and let the flavors get to know each other in the fridge. The longer they mingle the better it tastes.

This is a 30 min. dinner you can have any night of the week. It utilizes the fresh bounty of summer veggies and comes together in just a few minutes. I’d also recommend, make your own dressing for the Greek salad. Make it simple. Mix 1-part red wine vinegar to 2 parts olive oil and your choice of fresh spices & herbs, salt, pepper and a Dijon mustard or sour cream. You can even skip the mustard/sour cream if you want to go light. Your choice, keep it simple and delicious.