Caesar salad with a Godello based Spanish white

A lot of the time when we’re eating out we’re not matching dishes exactly - we simply buy a bottle we like the sound of and hope it will cope with everything we throw at it.

That happened last week with a delicious Spanish white called Pazo de Mariñan, a blend of Godello, Teixadura and Albarino from the Monterrei region of north west Spain.

Maybe not the first bottle you would think of ordering in an Italian restaurant but you know what? It sailed through quite a tricky series of dishes including this Caesar salad which was made with fresh anchovies (boquerones) rather than salted ones and a richly-flavoured pasta dish of nduja (spicy Calabrian sausage) and mascarpone which I think might have defeated a lesser wine. You can buy it from Village Wines of Bexley in Kent for a very reasonable £8.98 a bottle.

The restaurant is one of my new favourites in Bristol, Pasta Loco, which does a brilliant set lunch for just £12.50 for two courses. Rude not to order a decent bottle of wine, then.

By the way you’ll need to book. It’s deservedly popular.

For other pairings for Caesar salad see

The best wine pairings with Caesar salad