CONFESSION: I know nothing about wine. Not even a little. I just know that red wine is good for cooking with red meat, while white wine is better for cooking with lighter meats and seafood. The good thing about this is, I’m totally not a snob. This allows me to try all sorts of new things. And most of those things live in the discount wine bin of our local Binny’s Beverage Depot.

Cheap wine for cooking doesn’t always have to be crappy wine. Last time we stocked up I picked up some Zantho Zweigelt 2002, which I know now is a nice red Australian wine, and it was quite delicious. Added to this sauce, it was simply to die for.

So what’s in this mysterious but delicious sauce? Well, back in July I made some Alfredo Sauce from scratch and had plenty of leftover sauce. It’s Mustgo week here, and that was pulled from the freezer to be used this week.

I took some thin-cut ribeye and cut it up. I sautéed it with olive oil, one onion and a huge bag of brown mushrooms I bought at the Farmer’s Market last weekend. To this I added about half a cup of the red wine. When the meat was cooked, I removed it from the mixture to keep it from getting tough. I then let the rest of the wine cook down to a glaze.

I reconstituted my alfredo sauce with a bit of milk and soon it melted beautifully in a small saucepan. When this was good as new, I dumped it in with the wine and mushroom sauce, then tossed it all with the steak. I served it over Barilla Whole Grain Spaghetti and it was unbelievably good.

Not bad for a bunch of leftovers and a glass of $2 wine. Oh, did I forget to mention that? The wine, that usually goes for $12 a bottle, was $2 in the discount wine bin. Lucky me!