Tuscan bean soup and Sangiovese

Last week I was on an assignment in Tuscany for a couple of days. It was pretty hot but that didn’t discourage the Tuscans from serving the kind of food they enjoy all the year round - namely substantial bean and chickpea soups.

They’re particularly good because they make them from scratch from the best quality pulses which gives them a rich, sweet, mealy texture that is a quite marvellous foil for the local wines, which are almost all based on Sangiovese. Chianti is the best known of them but we tried others such as Montecucco and Morellino di Scansano. They all share the typically high acidity of inexpensive Italian reds which makes them taste slightly thin on their own by modern standards but absolutely perfect with lighter dishes such as soup and pasta.

More on this tomorrow!

Chicken, lemon and olive tagine with Rioja reserva

Friends came round the other night and I cooked one of my favourite new recipes - a chicken, lemon and olive tagine (which appears in my forthcoming book Food, Wine and Friends, she adds, unable to resist a cheap plug!). One of the reasons it’s slightly different from the authentic Moroccan version is that I remove the chicken skin which makes the dish a lot lighter.

You might be surprised at the idea of pairing it with a Rioja but I’ve found in the past that red wines are better than white with this dish. Whites tend to be too similar, too lemony. Reds offer a pleasing contrast of colour and flavour.

A chicken tagine contains two bitter ingredients, preserved lemons and green olives that bring out the sweet fruit in a red wine so I wouldn’t choose a wine that was very ripe and sweet-tasting already like a new world Cabernet, Merlot or Shiraz. An aged Rioja, with its soft, mellow cooked-strawberry fruit fits the bill perfectly. Ours was a Contino Rioja Reserva 2002, which came, surprisingly, from Marks and Spencer. Or not so surprisingly. M & S has some decent wines these days.

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For wine matches for other types of tagine check out Which wine to pair with a Moroccan tagine

Margaritas, tacos and tostadas

There are few instances where a national drink goes so well with a national cuisine as tequila and Mexican as I was reminded at the weekend when I tried out London’s latest opening Wahaca. (A deliberately easy-to-pronounce play on Mexico’s foodie mecca Oaxaca)

The restaurant has been opened by one of Britain’s brightest young chefs Thomasina Miers who won Masterchef a couple of years ago and who co-stars in her own series The Wild Gourmets on Channel 4 this autumn. It’s a bright, stylish place, rather like an upmarket Mexican version of Wagamama or Masala Zone, based on street food with some healthy salads and more substantial mains thrown in.

My daughter Kate and I shared a commendably uncheesy burrito (which Thomasina confessed she’d only added to the menu with the utmost reluctance after urgings from a Californian friend), some chicken tostadas, a huge healthy salad and some delicious charred corn on the cob with chilli, lime and crème fraïche which made a very good side. Oh, and a lovely fresh lemon margarita sorbet. I had a house margarita (an excellent match for this style of food) while Kate had an Agua Fresca, a long, refreshing hibiscus-flavoured soft drink.

If you want to eat Mexican in London I also feel bound to mention my son Will’s restaurant Green and Red in Shoreditch which, along with Dodi Miller’s Taqueria, has paved the way for the long overdue arrival in Britain of authentic Mexican food.

Chicken caesar salad and blonde ale

It’s so automatic to think of a wine match these days that one sometimes overlooks the fact that a beer will work just as well, if not better. So it is with that great restaurant favourite, chicken caesar salad.

On the face of it, chicken, lettuce, croutons and parmesan makes a pretty easy pairing but the dressing which typically contains garlic, anchovies and mustard has quite a kick. A blonde ale, particularly a Belgian blonde like Leffe or a northern French blonde ale, provides a touch of sweetness that complements the dressing perfectly. A strong golden ale like Duvel would also work well as would a golden lager like Schiehallion.

Winewise I find that Chardonnay makes the best match - unoaked or lightly oaked like Chablis, if the dressing is particularly piquant, oaked if the parmesan note is uppermost or the chicken is chargrilled.

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