Fritto misto + vino bianco

One of the real treats of our trip to Venice is fritto misto which used to refer to the assorted small fish that were too small to be sold from the fishermens’ catch but nowadays takes all manner of shapes and forms including vegetables and polenta (usually to keep the price down).

I suppose it’s the Venetian version of fish and chips but it’s much lighter with a crisp thin batter and (generally) no chips. When the fish is fresh - as it usually is here - it’s utterly delicious. My husband is so addicted he orders it in virtually every restaurant we go to that has it on the menu.

I have to admit it’s hard to recreate anywhere else unless you live right on the sea and have access to the day’s catch but if you do go to Venice the two drinks to have with it are a simple, crisp, fruity house white (vino della casa) or - less traditionally - a class of Prosecco, the local fizz. The house whites are really very good here particularly in the top restaurants so don’t feel embarrassed to order them. The best seem to come from the Friuli region although I’ve had some excellent house Soave.

Sea bass carpaccio and Grüner Veltliner

The other day we went to Il Vino d’Enrico Bernardo, an innovative new restaurant in Paris run by the world’s best sommelier in 2004 which has just won a Michelin star. The unusual aspect is that there is a wine rather than a food menu. You choose what you want to drink and they create a dish or a menu around it.

I’ll be writing about the experience in the July issue of Decanter but in the meantime I’ve picked out one pairing which I found particularly striking for my match of the week which was a carpaccio of sea bass, seasoned with lemon peel and with a few lightly dressed leaves piled on top. it was served with a sensationally good wine, a young (2006) but very rich, opulent waxy Grüner Veltliner Honivogl Smaragd from Franz Hirtzberger, a wine I would have thought was too assertive and characterful for such a light dish but which matched it perfectly. A real treat.

Hirtzberger's wines are stocked in the UK by Noel Young Wines though they unfortunately don't appear to have this particular wine at the time of writing.

Chicken with sweet peppers and Tempranillo

I’m constantly amazed at the stream of good value reds that is coming out of Spain these days. Here’s another - La Copa Tempranillo 2005 from the up and coming Campo de Borja wine region which is situated in Aragon to the north west of Zaragoza. It appears to be made by a co-operative, the Cooperative de Santo Cristo de Magallon but is none the worse for that.

It’s a vibrant, juicy, full-flavoured red which would happily accompany all kinds of everyday dishes but the pairing I was struck by was a Spanish-style chicken casserole with sweet red peppers, onions and pimenton, appropriately enough. I’d also like it with dishes with chorizo and chickpeas, other spicy sausages or with a chilli. The importers, Moreno Wines, which sells it in the UK for £5.75, recommend lamb, turkey, smoked meats and grilled or fried venison.

Image © © Igor Klimov - Fotolia.com

Pasta with Stilton and onion sauce and a new wave Spanish red

When I’m not writing about food and wine matching I’m writing a book - and a blog - about budget eating called The Frugal Cook. So this week’s match is a chance discovery with a scratch supper I knocked up last night (for which you can find the recipe on the blog)

Frankly I didn’t expect the wine to work but it was the only bottle I had to hand and being in frugal mode it seemed extravagant to open another. It was a gutsy blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah called 1707 made by Hacienda El Espino from the relatively unknown denomination of Almansa (famous for a battle after which this range is named).

The reason it worked was that the bitterness of the cheese was offset by the onion, which had been well-fried, the creaminess of the sauce to which I’d added a dollop of Greek yoghurt and, of course, the pasta. The wine, which was a 2003 vintage, had also had time to mature so there were no obtrusive tannins

It’s stocked in the UK by the Real Wine Company which has a very intelligent method of suggesting food pairings which is to link their wines to recipes on the BBC website. They suggest the wine will go with Stuffed Paupiette of Beef with red wine sauce, Nigella Lawson’s Tagliatelle of Chicken (it is a good pasta wine) and Keith Floyd’s Bread and Vegetable Hotpot with added chorizo (from Floyd in Spain).

To those I’d add gastropub favourites like lamb shanks and sausage and mash with onion gravy.