Pizzocheri and Valtellina

A slightly obscure pairing this week from the Lombardy region of Italy, the focus for an absolutely brilliant pop-up supper I went to at Wild Artichokes in Kingsbridge last Friday.

It was based on authentic recipes that had been painstakingly researched and assembled by food writer Christine Smallwood in her brilliant book An Appetite for Lombardy and cooked by Jane Baxter, ex River Café, former head chef of the nearby Riverford Kitchen and, most recently, author of Happy Salads.

Practically everything was different from the dishes you’d find in a restaurant. The courgette fritters for example, contained crushed amaretti and this ribsticking dish of buckwheat pasta, potato, cabbage and cheese is not one I’d ever come across before.

Largely because of the cabbage it paired perfectly with a light Valtellina red from the same region, one of those Italian reds that behaves like a white wine with food. Christine had brought along a bottle of Mamete Prevostini Santa Rita, Rosso di Valtellina which is 100% nebbiolo (known locally as Chiavennasca) and which costs around £18 from Kingsbridge Wine Rooms and online from Food & Fine Wine.

The recipe, which comes from Anna Bertola of Trattoria Altavilla in Bianzone tells you how to make the pasta from scratch but Christine says you can buy it dried at a good Italian deli like Lina Stores in Soho. Sounds like the perfect dish for a dark, wet, end-of-October night.

Although Wild Artichokes is not a restaurant in the conventional sense it hosts regular lunches, dinners and special events so it’s well worth checking their website or getting on their mailing list if you’re staying in the South Devon area.

Paté en croute and mature Saint Estèphe

Having spent two days in the company of the most high profile advocates of the art of food and wine pairing in France, the Gardinier brothers of Taillevent, I have more outstanding wine matches than I know what to do with this week

But I’m plumping for this one just because it’s an unusual idea to start the meal with a full-bodied red Bordeaux.

The meal was in fact at the more casual offshoot of the restaurant, 110 de Taillevent, whose USP is that it pairs every dish with four alternative wines, ranging from 5€ to 22€ a glass. The paté en croute, a real old-style piece of French charcuterie that apparently takes two days to make, is a staple of both the Paris and London branch.

In Paris it’s paired with one white and two reds, a 2014 Jumilla (no, the wines aren’t all French!), a 2012 white Saint Joseph, a 2010 Moulin-a-Vent and a 2009 Pauillac from Chateau Latour. But because the brothers also own Phélan Ségur in Saint Estèphe and wanted to show the 2008 with it that’s what we had.

And it was just lovely - very smooth, plummy and elegant - and not so overpowering that you couldn’t follow it with another wine, even a white. That owes a lot to the fact that it was a relatively mature vintage, as indeed are many wines on the list. The Gardiniers have their own vast cellar just outside Paris where they age all their wines. (Fascinating. More on this to follow)

It even took the accompanying cornichons in its stride which was quite a feat!

I ate at 110 de Taillevent as a guest of the restaurant.

Pasta with truffles and chardonnay

Although chardonnay is grown practically everywhere that grows grapes (with notable exceptions such as Bordeaux) it’s not a variety you may associate with Italy. But the country produces some fine examples and Isole e Olena’s Collezione Privata is one.

I enjoyed the 2014 vintage last week at a preview for a swish new Italian restaurant Margot which is being opened this week by Paulo de Tarso the former manager of Bar Boulud and Nicolas Jaouen, formerly of La Petite Maison.

De Tarso recommended it as the pairing for a lavish plate of casarecce with topinambur (Jerusalem artichoke) and truffles that my friend had ordered and I lusted over although she generously swopped plates half way through. Butter, cheese and truffle are a perfect foil for great chardonnay.

You can buy the Collezione Privata from a number of indies including D & D Wine though note that prices vary considerably from £31(the D & D price) to £40

Margot is at the Covent Garden end of Great Queen Street so is ideally situated for pre- and post-theatre eating. It’s quite spendy so it will be interesting to see if they do a prix fixe given the competition they face around there in the form of Balthazar, Frenchie and Angela Hartnett’s Cafe Murano but I suspect their USP will be service and glamour rather than price. (If you look at the home page of their website you’ll see why!)

I ate at Margot as a guest of the restaurant

Panko-fried yellowtail with truffle honey and sparkling sake

I honestly didn't know which dish to pick out of this extraordinary pop-up at The Dead Doll’s House Islington last week, hosted by wine importer Bibendum PLB who now also bring in a wide range of sakes. So I’m going for this one because it was the first and one of the simplest.

The meal was prepared in a corner of the private dining room by Endo Kazutoshi, former head sushi chef at Zuma and was one of the most spectacular Japanese meals I’ve ever had.

The dish was a couple of slices of incredibly fresh yellowtail tuna coated in panko crumbs, deep-fried and served with truffle honey and citrus zest.

Deep fried foods are always good with effervescent drinks and this gently sparkling Atago no Matsu sake from Nizawa Brewery was no exception. I knew umami was the perfect foil for sake but the sweetness of the truffle honey with the slightly sweet sake was a revelation.

The Nizawa brewery which was founded in 1873 was badly affected by the Great East earthquake and tsunami in 2011 and had to relocate but now has a state of the art new brewery with equipment that can apparently polish a rice grain down to 8% of its original size!

Apparently Atago no Matsu means ‘waiting love’ which is rather charming. Turns out it’s available on Amazon though at rather more than the prices you find in the states. Good sake has still to become affordable in the UK.

Apologies for rubbish pic. Very low light and a communal sharing board which made photography particularly difficult. (Excuses, excuses ... )

I was invited to the pop-up as a guest of Bibendum.