Pumpkin ravioli and sparkling albarino

Having ended up unexpectedly in hospital last week I struggled a bit to find a match of the week. Water doesn’t make the most inspiring pairing for food although it (the food in hospital) isn't by any means as bad as it used to be. So I’ll tell you about the the dish I had before I was taken ill.

It was a guest lunch at The Seahorse in Dartmouth cooked by Angela Hartnett and featured one of her wonderful silky pastas - ravioli stuffed (I vaguely recall) with pumpkin and hazelnuts and scattered with lavish amounts of parmesan.

I wouldn’t say it was the perfect match with the glass of sparkling albarino I was drinking, an ultra-dry Albarino Brut Nature, from Mar de Frades which was probably designed to go with the antipasti but it was certainly good enough. I also loved the intelligent wine list which is divided up by price.

If you want to try Angela’s food - and you should - visit one of her Cafe Muranos in London in St James’s Street and Covent Garden. Or Murano itself though that's quite a bit more expensive.

Veal ravioli with barolo

This wasn’t the most innovative wine pairing I came across in the last 7 days but it was such a classic I couldn’t fail to make it my match of the week.

It was at TV chef Giorgio Locatelli’s Locanda Locatelli which has recently reopened after four months' refurbishment following an explosion in the basement of the Churchill hotel in which it’s located. Pasta has always been one of Giorgio’s strong suits so I’d already picked a plate of home-made ravioli with braised veal, butter and sage as a main.

The sommelier suggested a glass of barolo (the 2010 Barolo Monforte D`Alba from Azienda Agricola Giacomo Fenocchio) to drink with it which it seemed rude to resist. It was, of course, quite perfect with the ravioli though at £17.50 a glass perhaps just a leetle bit more than I should prudently have been spending.

Not all the wines are that pricey. The glass I kicked off with - a fragrant white from the Societa` Agricola Cooperativa Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre (a blend of bosco, albarola and vermentino) was a more affordable £10 and spot on with my delicious antipasto of marinated anchovies, smoked potatoes, radicchio and salsa verde.

It’s good to see Locanda Locatelli back.

Pumpkin ravioli and a Douro white

You wouldn’t necessarily expect an Italian dish like pumpkin ravioli to pair with a Portuguese white but the match was just perfect.

The wine, Planalto Branco Reserva 2012 was one of those lovely lush whites from the Douro that I think I enjoy even more than the region’s highly respected reds - a blend of the local Viosinho, Malvasia Fina, Gouveio and Códega grapes.

It had the fullness and richness to carry the pumpkin ravioli - a ready-made pasta from the Co-op that had a really authentic sweetness. I served it simply with melted butter - it could have done with a little sage but I don’t think that would have affected the pairing.

The great advantage about rather more obscure wines like this is that they’re priced to encourage people to experiment. At £6.49 if you buy 2 bottles (at Majestic) it’s an absolute steal.

I reckon it would be good with salt cod fritters too - it makes a great aperitif. And if you didn’t have a Portuguese white to hand? I’d go for a chardonnay.

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