A beautiful pan sauce

A good value wine makes for wonderful sauce. Any chef will tell you not to cook with anything you wouldn't be willing to drink. That means cooking wine is out. Cooking wine is not only sub-par in flavor but is also loaded with salt, which means you have little control over how salty your dish is. You don't have to spend a ton of money either, a $6 Pinot Gris/ Grigio will usually make a fabulous white wine sauce for shrimp or pasta, and about $10 will get you a good enough red for a purely sumptiuous sauce for meat. Hopefully you'll want to drink them both with dinner, but if not, you can either reduce the whole bottle and freeze some sauce for later use or refridgerate it for up to a week for future cooking endeavors.

My favorite wine sauce meal is any variation of the classic French Steak au Poivre. Start with a lean steak, such as strip, or tenderloin. Season the steak with salt and pepper and let it stand for about ten minutes (to take the chill of the fridge off). Put a very thin coating of oil (I like half vegetable and half olive oil) into a pan and get it screaming hot, just before smoking point. You will notice the oil will start to ripple slightly if you move the pan, or you can throw a drop of water in there and a fierce sizzle will let you know it's ready. Place the steak in the pan and let it sear for about 2-3 minutes on each side. Don't move it around while it's cooking, the goal here is to develop a deep brown crust and the more you achieve without overcooking the better. Pull the steak out with tongs or a spatular (don't pierce the meat, it will dry out) and set on a plate then cover with foil.
Dust about 2 tsp of flour to soak up any leftover oil and stir it around until it is saturated. Now comes the wine, about a cup (or half a cup and half a cup of unsalted beef stock) Bring it to a boil and season with with salt and pepper. Throw the steak back in and let it finish cooking for a few more minutes. You still want your steak medium rare in the middle, since you are a using a lean steak it will be way too tough to eat if cooked well done. If you like it well done, use hamburger, it's much more affordable and is much tastier well done. Once that's done you can add just a splash of cream or butter to make it really rich and wonderful. Of not, it's delicious without it too.
Drinking the wine with the sauce will make a lovely meal. If you want it gluten free you can throw some chopped mushrooms in place of the flour to soak up the oil and meat flavor and add some lovely earthiness. You will have to reduce the sauce longer if you use mushrooms, don't add the steak back in until it is slightly thickened.
I hope you try this method of cooking. It can also be translated into chicken or veal marsala, shrimp scampi or shellfish. The method is similar, you just change up the ingredients. Enjoy wine with and in your food.