Match of the week
Lambrusco Grasparossa and pork
One of my favourite local restaurants Flinty Red in Bristol had put a Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro on by the glass when I went for lunch last week and it reminded me how incredibly delicious and versatile it is. So much so that we went on to order a full bottle.
We had it with panisse - some incredibly moreish chickpea fritters - with rabbit and gnocchi and with onglet but the match I thought worked best with the half bottle I took home (yes, I was that strong-minded) was some excellent homemade brawn from Castellanos Deli.
In fact it would be great with all kinds of porky dishes from pâté to salami - especially that delicious fennel kind. Or with rich eggy pasta which is apparently how they consume it in Emilia Romagna. Apparently it was a semi-secco but the overall impression was refreshingly dry with a lovely bitter wild cherry flavour. You could even drink it with a pizza.
The producer was Tenuta Pederzana from Castelvetro near Modena and it costs £11.99 from Flinty Red's sister shop Corks of Cotham. Serve it well chilled, as they did, in champagne flutes.
White peaches and Muscat de Frontignan
Last week we were in the south of France where, bizarrely, it wasn't as hot as it's been in England the past couple of days. One night we went round for supper at a neighbour's who served the simplest and most delicious dessert of white pèches de vigne with chilled Muscat de Frontignan splashed over them.
I imagine the two had been macerated together for a while as you couldn't really tell where the wine ended and the peach juice began but it was absolutely delicious.
The only snag is that it's pretty hard to get peaches that are ripe and juicy enough to pull this trick in the average UK supermarket, Marks and Spencer's possibly apart but you should be able to find them at a decent greengrocer's. Or if you're on holiday in France or Italy - or anywhere else where peaches get properly ripe - do try it there.
Image © Orlando Bellini - Fotolia.com
Guineafowl with cherries and Beaujolais
I’ve been so busy catching up after my Alsace trip that I haven’t had much time for new food and wine discoveries but here’s one we had at Les Temps Changent in Chalons-en-Champagne, a hotel we frequently stop at to break the journey through France.
It was a guineafowl leg stuffed with a white boudin-type farce, served with a light jus and some warmed through fresh cherries and went perfectly with a half bottle of Morgon. (Which one? Afraid I can’t remember. After four full-on days in Alsace it was nice to order something without feeling I had to make notes about it.)
A word of warning though. The pairing worked because the sauce was not too intensely cherry flavoured. If that had been the case it might have stripped the cherry flavours out of the wine. Or, if the wine had been sweeter and more intense, like a New Zealand Pinot Noir, for example, it would have made the combination too sweet and detracted from the flavour of the guineafowl.
A Belgian-style cherry beer (Kriek) would also have been good.
White fish in cream sauce and Alsace Riesling
It’s hard to pick out the best match from my trip to Alsace last week but I think it has to go to this classic combination you find in every traditional restaurant.
I admit it doesn’t sound that appetising - and the fish does have to be super-fresh for it to work. The best example was in a traditional family-runn inn in Itterswiller called the Vieux Pressoir - a perfectly fried fillet of zander served with freshly made noodles and a light cream sauce which made you wonder why you don’t serve fish like this more often. In other restaurants it’s often served with choucroute (sauerkraut) and plain boiled potatoes.
Both go brilliantly well with a crisp dry Riesling, preferably from a Grand Cru (although the classification of Alsatian wines is appallingly complicated, so don’t get overly stressed about that). It would also work with simply cooked chicken in a creamy sauce. Cream may have fallen out of favour in recent years but Riesling just loves it.
I’ll be writing more about pairing Alsace wines in a couple of days.
Cicheti and an Aperol Spritz
If anyone can make Aperol - the Venetian Campari drinkalike - fashionable it's Russell Norman of Polpo, Polpetto, Spuntino and now Da Polpo - four of the coolest (and smallest) restaurants in London. Admittedly bitters are not to everyone's taste - they are...well...bitter but I find Aperol fruitier and easier to drink than Campari. The traditional way to serve it as as an Aperol spritz topped up with Prosecco and a whoosh of soda water - the perfect way to recover when the Tube is at its hellish steamy worst.
No self-respecting barman in Venice would dream of serving you a drink without a plate of cicheti which frequently don't amount to much more than a few dog-eared sandwiches but the Polpo stable's are in different league.
We were in the restaurant for some meatball action but managed to down a couple of pizette including this zucchini chilli and mint one (right) with which our spritzes paired perfectly.
You can order a whole lot of other delicious things like grilled fennel and white anchovy, and potato and parmesan crochettas. (Mmmm. Potatoes and cheese. My favourite.) A great place to graze.
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