Match of the week
Pasta arrabbiata with sangiovese
What happens when you choose a wine to pair with a particular dish and the dish doesn’t materialise? Well, if you’re lucky it matches equally well.
Arrriving back in Languedoc yesterday evening (a Sunday) with all the local shops shut we breathed a sigh of relief that there was at least the local pizzeria - pulling out a robust bottle of Tuscan red, Il Secondo di Pacina 2010, to go with it.
Trouble was the pizzaria’s oven had broken down so NO pizza.
Fortunately we had some pasta - as always - in the cupboard so I made a scratch supper with a very pokey tomato sauce with a LOT of garlic, bacon, passata and a spoonful of hot pimenton which I realised afterwards was pretty well identical not only to an arrabbiatta as you can see from this recipe but to the near identical pasta sauce I made a year ago. Which goes to show either that I’m a cook of limited imagination or that it’s a super-reliable match.
You could obviously also drink other sangioveses with this type of pasta or - possibly even more appropriate - a southern Italian or a Sicilian red like a negroamaro or a primitivo - but not too modern or jammy a style
Roast pigeon and Salice Salentino
A slightly unseasonal but absolutely delicious wine pairing from Bjorn van der Horst’s much anticipated new restaurant Eastside Inn. The talented Van der Horst used to cook at the Greenhouse and then for Gordon Ramsay at La Noisette and has now branched out on his own. I’ll be posting a full review in the next couple of days but this, for me, was the outstanding match of the meal, selected by sommelier Thierry Sauvanot, also ex-Ramsay.
The key ingredient - a highly original twist - was a gooseberry compote which really keyed into the wine, a Cantele Salice Salentino 2006 from Puglia. It lifted it above the ordinary (not that there was anything wrong with it, it’s just an inexpensive wine) and made it taste sumptuously brambly and velvety. The other accompaniments - a rich but not over-heavy jus and some girolles acted as a good supporting cast.
A lesson that you don’t necessarily have to drink great wine with Michelin-starred food if the sommelier knows his job.
My meal at Eastside Inn was complimentary
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