The best wine pairings for vitello tonnato

One of the best hot weather dishes, this piquant dish of cold poached or roast veal with a tuna, anchovy and caper mayonnaise invariably pops up on menus at this time of year. But what to pair with it?

* as it originally comes from Piedmont a Piedmontese white like Roero Arneis or a Gavi seems a good place to start. Other neutral dry Italian white wines such as a Vermentino or even a quality Pinot Grigio from the Alto Adige would be a good match too.

*It's not traditional but a mineral Chablis or Aligoté would work as would a mature Muscadet-sur-lie or an Albarino.

*Try a dry rosé - especially Provençal rosé (see also this longer list of good Provencal rosé pairings)

* Personally I think it’s more a white wine dish than a red but a young Langhe Nebbiolo or other light Italian red like a Valtellina or even a light red burgundy would work fine. (Not too lush and fruity a pinot in my opinion as the anchovies and capers will accentuate its sweetness. Italians rarely drink wines without a fair amount of acidity in them.)

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Six of the best drink pairings for kale

Although there's not quite the feverish frenzy there was about kale a couple of years ago there's still a lot of kale lurve around.

The reason of course is its well-documented health benefits which might suggest you shouldn’t be drinking alcohol with it at all but there are many dishes containing kale with which it would be pleasant to have a drink.

With its slightly bitter taste kale also has an impact on wine when it's served as a vegetable: it’ll tend to make any wine taste sweeter so you may want to serve it with both reds and whites that have a good level of acidity. That effect can be counteracted though if you serve it with something like chorizo that has a stronger flavour. Then you should match the chorizo rather than the kale

* Apple-flavoured drinks especially apple juice and cider work well with salads that include kale such as this one. Or try a grüner veltliner.

* Fresh carrot and beet-based juices

* Italian white wines such as Gavi are good with creamy pasta dishes with cavolo nero

* Fresh-tasting natural reds such as young syrah and mencia from Spain’s Bierzo region are good with hearty stews and soups that are based on kale. If they include a spicy sausage like chorizo you could serve a fuller bodied red like a Rioja crianza or a red from Portugal’s Alentejo region.

*Tuscan reds like Chianti work well when kale is used as an accompaniment for lamb or game with polenta

* Give kale an oriental spin with soy or sesame and you could drink a sake

And of course kale can be served IN a drink rather than paired WITH one. You’ll find some good ideas on my friend Monica Shaw’s blog Smarter Fitter blog.

If you enjoyed this post you may also find my posts on pairing wine and cauliflower and wine and brussels sprouts useful.

The best wine pairings for spaghetti alle vongole

The ideal pairing does of course depend on how you make your spaghetti alle vongole - the classic Italian dish of spaghetti with white wine and clams - but in my book, the answer is simple: a young, unoaked, Italian white wine.

Goodness, there are enough to chose from! A simple Soave, Bianco di Custoza, Frascati, Falanghina, Vermentino, Vernaccia or Verdichio dei Castelli de Jesi, basic Sicilian whites - even a Pinot Grigio though be prepared to pay more than the lowest cut price offer for it.

Italian grape varieties grown elsewhere such as Vermentino and Pinot Grigio would do the trick but make sure it’s the classic Italian style rather than the off-dry Pinot Gris one.

You could of course drink any crisp dry white from elsewhere. Muscadet would be fine as would Chablis, Picpoul de Pinet or Albarino. Sauvignon Blanc I personally think is too powerfully aromatic for this simple dish.

A genuinely dry rosé - such as a Côtes de Provence or a Bardolino would also be a good pairing.

Including more tomato in the dish might mean you want a wine of greater intensity - say a late harvest Vermentino (intense but not sweet) or a Greco di Tufo from Campania, but I personally don’t think you can better this version from the Guardian’s excellent Felicity Cloake who assiduously road tests a range of recipes in her weekly How to Cook The Perfect . . . column.

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The best wine pairings with Caesar salad

As with most salads Caesar salad is all about the dressing which on the face of it sounds tricky, anchovies being notoriously difficult to match with wine.

In fact by the time you’ve whizzed them up with an egg yolk and plenty of parmesan you’ve got a creamy dressing which while tangy isn’t too much of a wine killer - and there are always the croutons to offset it. I’d still be inclined to stick to a dry white or rosé though rather than a red.

The only variable is whether the salad contains chicken and even then it’s not likely to affect your choice too much. If it’s charred it can handle a fuller-bodied white.

* crisp dry whites such as Chablis and other unoaked chardonnays, chenin blanc (not the richer, off-dry style), dry Italian whites such as Gavi or a good Pinot Grigio or a Spansih Albarino

* if the chicken is chargrilled you could partner it with a slightly richer chardonnay. An oaked white from the Douro region of Portugal could also work well.

* a crisp dry rosé from Provence or elsewhere in Southern France

If you fancy a beer try a Belgian-style blonde ale or golden ale like Duval which also makes a great match

For other salad pairings see Which Wine Pairs Best With Salad

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