Polenta with roasted courgettes, tomatoes and basil and Bardolino

After months of lockdown it’s been such a pleasure to return to favourite restaurants like Elliott and Tessa Lidstone’s Box-E and I couldn’t have had a more perfect day to enjoy it. The food too - especially this quintessentially summery dish of courgettes, tomatoes and basil with the lightest, fluffiest polenta - was just perfect for sitting outside on a hot day.

We’d had a glass of orange wine (not on the list) with our starters so fancied moving onto a light red rather than back to a white and picked on the Raval Bardolino Classico, an Italian red that tends to get overlooked but actually hits the spot perfectly at this time of year. It was full of lovely fresh cherry fruit - we asked for it to be lightly chilled - and really matched our mood as much as the food. I’d also love it with cold meats and cheeses or with smoked duck

It’s not that easy to track down in the UK but you can buy it from a London deli and wineshop called 8 rocks for £13.75 (and, I've now discovered, from Box E themselves who have acquired an off-licence for £15).

The Raval family also has a rather glorious agriturismo if you fancy a trip to Lake Garda. Who wouldn't?

See also The best wines to pair with courgettes

Grilled aubergine, red pepper and goats cheese baguette and Le Fruit Défendu rosé

It’s been so steamingly hot this past week down in the Languedoc (sorry to rub it in, rain-sodden folks back home) that there isn’t any alternative to rosé for my match of the week. That’s what I’ve been drinking (albeit from different producers) with everything.

The best match though - and I offer you this as much as a great sandwich suggestion as a food pairing - was a sarnie I rustled up for my vegan daughter to eat on the plane and then made one for myself as it looked so delicious. It was grilled aubergine, red peppers (also grilled) and basil stuffed into a baguette and drizzled with olive oil - only as I’m not vegan and there was goats’ cheese in the fridge I slathered some of that on the base of the sandwich too.

With it I had a glass of the nearest bottle that was open, a 2011 Fruit Défendu rosé from Domaine Magellan in the next door village of Magalas - a really nice dry rosé made mainly from old vine Cinsault with a little Syrah. Cinsault can be bubblegummy but I note they say on the website they don’t control the temperature over much “This old grape variety doesn’t appreciate being treated too technologically”.

Linlithgow Wines seems to have it for £6.76 a bottle which is a very fair price. When and if the sun next shines I can strongly recommend it. And the sandwich.

Pasta with pesto and Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi

This past week has reminded me yet again what a great match Italian whites are for food. Their lack of obvious character means they tend not to stand out in a tasting but they explode into life with a dish.

The first pairing, I’ve already mentioned in my review of the River Café - Poggio al Tesoro Vermentino Solosole 2007 was just the perfect fresh foil for a salad of Castelluccio lentils , ricotta di Bufala and chilli but I equally enjoyed a pairing I tried at home of a 2007 Loretello Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi from Cantine Politi (from Vino in Topsham) with a plate of spaghetti with fresh home-made pesto (the classic kind with basil rather than one of the more inventive new variations).

I personally find pesto goes much better with whites than with reds which it seems to coarsen. Gavi di Gavi is another good match.

Carrot and basil-infused slugs and Saumur Blanc

For the first time my match of the week is not one I’ve experienced myself but was reported by Ron Zimmerman of The Herbfarm in Woodinville, Washington on Twitter (where he tweets as Herbguy - and I tweet as winematcher)

Apparently a customer asked him if he could serve up slugs and he obliged, first purging them on a diet of carrots and basil.

His asked on Twitter what the ideal wine pairing should be, saying he was thinking along the lines of Sauvignon Blanc. I frivolously suggested a strong rosé like Tavel or the Provençal anise-flavoured aperitif pastis (the better to mask the slug flavour, to be honest) but he ended up serving the Thierry Germain L’Insolite Domaine des Roches Neuves Saumur Blanc 2005.

In fact as you can see from Zimmerman’s Picasa album here the preparation and presentation was quite elaborate so I imagine he was looking more for a wine to pick up on his basil-grappa butter and tomato confit than his Spotted Leopard and European Red Slugs which apparently tasted somewhat like calamari. According to Zimmerman “the basil, with the touch of sweetness from the shallots and carrots, pushed the flavours into a nice range for the Saumur Blanc”.

If you’re of a squeamish disposition don’t let that put you off The Herbfarm - a restaurant about which I’ve heard good things. They apparently serve slug-free 9 course themed dinners paired with matching wines on a regular basis.

And if slugs are infesting your garden you now know what to do with them . . .