Top pairings |  The best wines to pair with courgettes or zucchini

Top pairings

The best wines to pair with courgettes or zucchini

There’a a fair chance that if you grow courgettes - or zucchini - you’re eating more than your fair share of them at this time of year but what wine should you drink with them?

As you’ll be well aware they don’t have much flavour of their own so it’s more a question of thinking about the flavours you put with them when you're working out a wine pairing. Zucchini go particularly well with soft cheeses and yogurt, with herbs, especially dill and mint, with tomatoes, and with olive oil - if you fry them crisply this will bring out more of an intense flavour.

You can also turn them into a hot or cold soup but these again tend to be seasoned with the same herbs

For me this generally points to crisp unoaked white wines rather than red and even than rosé, though as they’re often served as part of a meal rather than the main event, a pale dry rosé could well hit the spot

Good wines to pair with zucchini

A citrussy sauvignon blanc

Rarely fails.

Crisp dry Italian whites

So many Italian whites are sympathetic to vegetable dishes - pinot grigio, pecorino, Falanghina, Greco di Tufo, verdicchio, vermentino .… I wouldn’t bother with the showier chardonnays though

Fresh Greek whites such as assyrtiko and moschofilero

Greeks have some of the best ways of cooking zucchini so why not try a Greek white with them?

Courgette and feta fritters with yoghurt

Dry riesling especially if there’s a touch of spice in the recipe as in this delicious savoury courgette seed and curry leaf cake

Stuffed courgette flowers are even more delicate and really need an accompanying white wine that won't overwhelm them. An Arneis from Piedmont, for instance or a sparkling wine such as Franciacorta.

Courgette and tomato gratin

If you bake courgettes with tomatoes and cheese you could drink a Beaujolais or a light Italian red such as a Valpolicella. (Or that rosé you've been dying to crack open ... )

Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay

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Comments: 5 (Add)

David R in Australia on January 6 2022 at 06:25

Agree with using non wooded white. Last night on a warm mid summer evening, we tried meatless zucchini fritters paired with a Giesen NZ Marlborough 2021 Sauvignon Blanc. The vegetative notes weren't overly aggressive, lovely citrus on the palate. Clean, good balance. Worked a treat! Just for fun, we will try a 2014 Australian Riverland Petit Manseng tonight with same fritters and will include some bacon in the mix. Cheers!.

Fiona Beckett on July 27 2021 at 15:13

That sounds REALLY delicious? Unoaked I imagine?

Carole on July 27 2021 at 13:00

I once had a lovely lunch in a restaurant in Bordeaux that began with a courgette and herb soufflé. It went really well with the pichet of Bordeaux Blanc which we also drank with our main course of grilled fish.

Fiona Beckett on August 6 2019 at 23:10

๐Ÿ˜‚

Nick Brett on August 6 2019 at 16:07

Surely almost any good wine, as long as it takes your mind off the fact you are eating courgettes?

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