The best wines to pair with beetroot

Beetroot is one of the few vegetables that pairs better with red wine than with white - not only for the colour though that tends to put the brain on auto-suggest - but its rich, earthy, sometimes sweet flavour.

True it’s often partnered with other ingredients that can affect the wine match - it goes well with rare game like pigeon, duck and venison, for example, but that’s still red wine territory (pinot noir in particular for me).

In a salad or dip however you may want to take it in a different direction especially when tangy goat cheese or feta and spring vegetables are involved. 

Here are some suggestions for different types of beetroot dishes.

Good pairings for beets

Beetroot risotto

Beetroot makes a deliciously rich, flamboyantly pink risotto, better made, as you can see from the recipe below with red wine than with white. Pinot noir or dolcetto would be a perfect match for this.

Beetroot and pinot noir risotto

 

Beetroot tarte tatin

Beetroot can also be cooked until it caramelises when it acquires a more intense sweetness that can handle a richer, more full-bodied red from, say, the southern Rhone or the Languedoc (the classic grenache/syrah/mourvedre blend, for instance). But malbec would work too.

Borscht (beetroot soup)

More of a beer dish than a wine one, to be honest. A good pils would be perfect. Or even a shot (or two) of frozen vodka

Beetroot salads

Beetroot salads often include some kind of sharp-flavoured cheese such as goat’s or feta cheese or yoghurt and herbs such as chives or dill.

 

Although a fruity red like pinot would still be fine if that’s what you fancy the cheesy element would steer me in the direction of a crisp white wine such as a sauvignon blanc or an albarino, as I discovered a while back in this match of the week. Especially as you might have other white wine-friendly ingredients such as asparagus broad beans, peas or salad leaves in the dish.

And beets, of course, are not always red. With stripey chiogga or yellow beets you might want a richer white like a white Côtes du Rhône.

Beetroot dips, spreads and purées

Often part of a selection of different Middle-eastern-style mezze. Dry rosé is a good all-rounder with this kind of spread.

Beetroot cured salmon

Sometimes beetroot is used to cure salmon in which case it becomes more about the salmon than the beet. A couple of years back I found a very good match in furmint, a versatile dry Hungarian wine that can take a number of dishes in its stride. You can read about the pairing here.

 

On another occasion it was Godello from the north of Spain that scooped the prize. Dry riesling would work well too.

 

What food to pair with Malbec

Malbec has become so popular it may have become one of your favourite red wines but what are the best kind of dishes to pair with it?

Given most of the bottles we see come from Argentina, steak might seem the obvious answer but there are lots of other dishes it would work with too. In the Cahors region of south-west France for example it might well be paired with a cassoulet.

Generally it’s a full-bodied, generous wine which goes well with meat-based dishes but suits grilled and roasted vegetables too. It can also handle a bit of spice - try it with a chilli con carne or a kebab

Food pairings with malbec

Young, fruity malbecs

*Smoky cured beef

*Beef empanadas

*Charcuterie, especially flavourful terrines

*Chilli con carne

*Spaghetti and meatballs

*Spaghetti bolognese (made British/American-style rather than a classic Italian ragu)

*Pasta with blue cheese sauce and broccoli (as you can see from this Match of the Week)

*Fajitas

*Beef burritos

*Burgers (OK, that’s steak, I know!)

*Medium hot lamb curries like rogan josh

*Kebabs

*Roast or grilled aubergine

*Dishes with beetroot such as a salad of smoked eel, beetroot and horseradish.

Heavyweight malbecs (more expensive, full-bodied malbecs of 14%+)

*Steak, obviously and . . .

*Roast beef or venison

*Barbecued lamb, beef or pork - it particularly suits smokey, chilli-based rubs

*Lamb tagines with prunes

*Beef teppanyaki

*Steak and hot game pies

*Aubergine bakes

*Farmhouse cheddar

*Dark chocolate (a controversial one, this but some people argue that a ripe lush Malbec works well with a chocolate dessert. Not totally convinced myself.)

More rustic styles of malbec such as Cahors and Cot

*7 hour braised leg of lamb

*Lamb shanks

*Braised beef stews or shortribs especially with smoked bacon (Malbec’s also a good wine to add to a stew)

*Pot roast pheasant

*Duck confit

*Cassoulet and other pork and bean dishes

*Flavoursome sausages with garlic e.g. Toulouse sausages

*Cheeseboards (barring lighter cheeses like goats cheese and stinkier ones like Epoisses. As Evan Goldstein points out in his excellent book Daring Pairings, Malbec works surprisingly well with more mellow blues like Barkham Blue or Stilton - though not, I think, with Roquefort)

See also 10 Argentinian wine pairings that don’t involve steak

The best wine pairings for feta cheese

Since this baked feta and tomato pasta recipe went viral on TikTok a couple of years ago, feta has been on every home cook’s radar but what sort of wine do you pair with it?

Greek wine is the obvious starting point particularly white wine which suits its sharpness and saltiness and the sort of ingredients you pair with it such as tomatoes, olives and courgettes (zucchini).

But you should also consider wines from further afield.

5 white wines to pair with feta cheese

Assyrtiko and other Greek whites

The traditional Greek salad of tomatoes, cucumber onion and olives is the classic pairing for an assyrtiko or assyrtiko blend. It will also work with other salads such as watermelon and feta salad and with whipped feta. With a baked feta dish you might want a Greek white with a touch of oak or a slightly older vintage.

The best food pairings for assyrtiko

Spain’s albarino and Portugal’s alvarinho also have that clean fresh sharpness that would suit feta-based dishes well as would . . .

. . .English Bacchus and . . .

. . .Greco di Tufo
Another good option from the south of Italy. Try Etna’s carricante too.

Citrussy sauvignon blanc
I’m thinking particularly of Bordeaux sauvignon and sauvignons from Chile with their lemon and grapefruit character rather than the fruitier examples from New Zealand or more mineral sauvignon blancs from the Loire (but, hey, if Bacchus, why not?)

Dry rosé
Especially with feta salads. But then rosé goes with practiclaly everything salady. There’s some good rosé from Greece these days to explore.

Does feta go with red wine?
It would be fine especially if you’re combining feta with aubergine (eggplant) or red meat. I’d choose a bright breezy red with good acidity such as a young syrah or a mencia or with this warm lamb salad with a pea, mint and feta cheese dressing, try a cabernet franc. (Basically you match the lamb not the feta.)

What about sweet wines?
Roasted with honey, as in this recipe in the New York Times, I’d choose a sweet wine like a Samos or southern French muscat though they recommend a drier white. Depends at what what stage you’re having it, at the beginning or end of the meal.

If you’re a baked feta fan you might also enjoy this recipe for Simit with lemon and thyme-baked feta

Photo © Fiona Beckett

The best kind of wine to pair with gnocchi

As with pasta the best wine to pair with gnocchi is more about the sauce rather than the gnocchi itself. You want a different wine if you’re serving it with a creamy sauce than if you’re serving it with a simple tomato one.

Although gnocchi - which is basically an Italian dumpling - typically has a denser texture than pasta you can pair it with similar wines but to save you having to click through to multiple other posts here are the best matches I’ve found.

As an Italian dish Italian wines would be my first go-to but obviously feel free to experiment

Wine with gnocchi

Gnocchi with tomato sauce
Crisp Italian white wines like pinot grigio and pecorino pair really well with gnocchi with a fresh or lightly cooked tomato sauce. If the sauce is more intense I’d choose a light Italian red like a Chianti or even a Barbera d’Asti.

Gnocchi with a creamy sauce
Gnocchi is often served with a creamy sauce, frequently with gorgonzola though the blue cheese element is generally not that dominant. I’d pick a slightly richer white with this such as a Soave or a good Valpolicella - even a ripasso if you like a touch of sweetness.

Gnocchi with brown butter and sage
Chardonnay always pairs well with butter-based sauces so that’s a safe bet but you could try other rich whites such as an old-vine chenin blanc or a grenache gris.

Gnocchi (or gnudi) with spinach and ricotta
Back to a more delicate style of white - I’d pick something like a Gavi di Gavi or, looking outside Italy, a glass of Chablis

Baked Gnocchi
Once you bake gnocchi, particularly if it includes a meat ragu it becomes a richer dish so again I’d be inclined to go for a Barbera d’Asti or a southern Italian red like a nero d’avola.

Gnocchi alla Romana is more like polenta so it depends what else you’re serving with it. Match that rather than the gnocchi in this case.

If you’re a gnocchi fan there are some particularly delicious recipes on the Food & Wine website.