Grilled monkfish with salsa verde and vermentino

Monkfish is regularly referenced as a meaty fish you can pair with red wine, especially when it’s wrapped in pancetta but suppose you serve it with salsa verde instead as they did at the Seahorse al Mare pop-up in Dartmouth last week?

Suddenly it becomes all about the herbs and points you in the direction of a white wine rather than a red especially when the sides - a salad of mixed leaves, tarragon and olive oil and braised green beans with white onion and agrodolce - also have vegetal notes

It turned out that the wine we had ordered - a richly textured 2018 Audarya Vermentino di Sardegna* had herby notes of its own but it was also weighty enough to cope with the fact that the fish had been cooked over open coals.

It went less well with the more delicate course of some very delicious fresh Dartmouth crab with fennel which was better with the glass of champagne they had offered us.

But then champagne by the water - what’s not to like?

I was a guest at Seahorse al Mare which is currently taking reservations for August

You can buy the Audarya Vermentino from Sommeliers Choice for £14.50 a bottle

See also the best wine pairings with monkfish.

Italian spinach and ricotta pie with Soave (or Vermentino)

To tell you the truth this is as much about the story behind the pie as the wine match but that was good too so let’s kick off with that.

The pie was a Torta Pasqualina a traditional Easter pie from Liguria which is filled with ricotta, spinach and whole eggs. As often these days it was a question of trying to find the most suitable match which turned out to be a rather elderly 2015 Bertani Soave which had seen better days but which still had enough character to show off the pie rather nicely.

Vermentino which is local to the region (as you can see from this article) would have been better still but I didn’t have any. Gavi di Gavi or any of those interesting neutral Italian whites, preferably from a more recent vintage, would have done too. As would a glass of Franciacorta.

What was particularly nice about the construction of this pie was that a group of us made it together on Zoom from this recipe by Rachel Roddy. We’d collaborated on the sourcing of the ingredients getting our spinach from a local greengrocer (Hugo’s in Bedminster, Bristol) who also supplied the locally made ricotta from Westcombe Dairy. And it fortunately didn’t require too much flour.

We cooked together, companionably chatting and comparing notes for about an hour then broke off to clear up while the pies were cooking and reconvened (with Rachel, who is a colleague on the Guardian) to have a drink an hour later. A nice thing to do with friends who like to cook - whether you have Soave or not!

Chicken liver crostini and Rosso di Montalcino

One of the most striking things about my trip to Tuscany last week was the reminder of how good young red wines are with Tuscan food - right the way through the meal, not just with the main course.

It was certainly true of the first lunch we had when we arrived which was co-hosted by the Bolgheri winery Poggio al Tesoro and San Polo in Montalcino, both owned by the Allegrini family.

I expected Poggio al Tesoro’s fragrant Solosole Vermentino to match the crostini that were handed round at the beginning of the meal - and it did - but not quite as well as the elegant 2014 San Polo Rosso di Montalcino which sailed effortlessly through the tomato, mushroom and (most challenging of all) chicken liver toppings. It also paired really well with a creamy dish of fettucine, zucchini, pancetta and robiola cheese - as did the 2008 vintage of the Solosole which I was also tempted to make my match of the week.

This would apply equally well to youthful chiantis or any other young sangioveses. It’s the acidity that makes them work so well - and the fact that, like white wines, they’re served at cellar temperature.

The San Polo Rosso di Montalcino costs £16.99 from slurp.co.uk and £18.95 at Eton Vintners.

I travelled to Tuscany with Liberty Wines

Vermentino and seafood

Normally this weekly post features a specific dish and wine but vermentino goes with so many fish dishes I think it’s worth flagging up its sheer versatility.

Over the weekend’s visit to the Porto Cervo wine festival we drank it with everything from oysters and raw scampi to grilled seabream to spaghetti alle vongole and it took every one of them in its stride.

If you want to refine the experience you could drink younger, crisper less expensive vermentinos with raw shellfish and cold, fish-based antipasti and more expensive, richly textured ones such as Capichera’s VT or Argiolas Is Argiolas with dishes like this baked seabream we had at Il Vecchio Mulino or lobster rice.

See also this post on other matches for spaghetti alle vongole

I was invited to the Porto Cervo wine festival by Starwood Hotels and ate at Il Vecchio Mulino as a guest of Capichera.