Which wines to pair with calamari/squid

Calamari or squid is often served as a starter or appetiser with other dishes so you need to bear that in mind when you’re choosing a wine to pair with it. It also depends on the way you prepare it.

It’s one of those ingredients that doesn’t have a great deal of flavour of its own, except when it’s cooked with its own ink. It’s more about whether it’s deep-fried, seared or cooked on a grill and what the seasoning is.

Except when it’s cooked with red wine I’d say that almost any crisp citrussy white would work, sauvignon blanc being the obvious option but plenty of French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese whites would work too. 

Fried calamari or chipirones

Fried food is great with anything fizzy so a sparkling wine such as cava or a crémant would be perfect.

Or if it’s part of a selection of Greek mezze, a crisp citrussy white such as Assyrtiko or Picpoul from the Languedoc.

Chilled manzanilla sherry would also be brilliant especially with Spanish-style chipirones (baby squid). (If you haven’t tried manzanilla with seafood you should!

Salt and pepper squid

A popular dish in Chinese and Pan Asian restaurants. It may be more or less spicy but a dry riesling or pinot gris should work well especially, if it includes Asian flavours as in this dish of this crispy chilli lime squid with edamame bean and coriander salad.

Chargrilled squid

Often squid is cooked on the grill or over an open fire which makes the dish more robust. A slightly more intense white such as a good albarino or a Greco di Tufo can handle that. 

Braised squid with red wine

A chef friend of mine used to cook a dish of squid with red wine, orange and fennel which definitely made it a red wine rather than a white wine dish. A juicy Spanish red such as Bobal or a young rioja would work really well

Risotto nero, squid ink linguini and other dishes with squid ink

Squid ink adds a savoury, slightly saline boost to a dish but basically it’s a case of the same type of crisp dry white. Something like a Greco di Tufo or a Rueda as in this pairing from a Spanish holiday a couple of years ago. Albarino should work well too as you can see from this pairing with arroz negro.

And if you want to try cooking squid for yourself try this delicious recipe for Barbequed brochette of prawns, squid and courgette with sauce vierge.

Photo ©rondon at fotolia.com

What wine to pair with gazpacho

If there’s one dish more difficult to pair with wine than already tricky tomatoes it’s gazpacho, the chilled Spanish summer soup that includes raw onion and peppers as well. So what wine should you pair with it?

White rather than red I suggest and make it young, crisp and fresh without any oak influence.

Bear in mind that if you’re in the mood for gazpacho you’re in the mood for a refreshing drink

6 of the best wine pairings for gazpacho

Rueda or sauvignon blanc

Good Rueda (and I wouldn’t buy the cheapest one you can lay your hands on) is a great match with the same bright citrussy flavours as a sauvignon blanc which of course would work too. I suggest one of the more restrained styles such as Reuilly from the Loire rather than a full-on New Zealand sauvignon blanc

Albarino

Galicia’s elegant versatile white is always a good option

Picpoul de Pinet

As is Picpoul from the south of France (good value too)

Dry Italian whites

Always spring into life with food - anything from a good pinot grigio from the Alto Adige to a Falanghina, Pecorino or Greco di Tufo from the south

Manzanilla sherry

You might be surprised to find sherry so far down the list given it’s a go to match with soup but that’s because it’s unpredictable, depending on the sherry and the recipe. When it works it’s brilliant but it just might misfire. My favourite style would be well chilled manzanilla from a freshly opened bottle though with white gazpacho (ajo blanco) I would go for a fino - or even a dry moscatel.

Provence rosé - which is more like a dry white wine - is also a pretty good option if it’s not too fruity which generally would be the case.

And read about this surprise pairing with smoked vodka!

See also

The best wine matches for tomatoes

Matching wine and soup

Photo © Ramon Grosso @fotolia.com

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

Top wine pairings with goat cheese (chèvre)

Since goats cheese and Sauvignon Blanc is such a great match it might seem redundant to think of anything else but despite its reputation for being . . . well . . . goaty, goats cheese is easy to pair with other wines.

Unless you’re slathering it on a cracker as a sneaky snack the chances are you’re going to be eating it with something else - in a salad with asparagus, say, with roast red peppers or beetroot or on a cheeseboard with other cheeses - unless you’re in Provence where they don’t seem to serve any other kind.

With all those dishes it helps to have a wine with some fresh acidity of its own so here are my suggestions:

Sauvignon Blanc - you know that already. Doesn’t matter hugely where it’s from though I personally think the white wines of the Loire like Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé and even Sauvignon de Touraine work especially well. (The classic pairing is a Sancerre and a Crottin de Chavignol.)

Wines that taste like Sauvignon Blanc so other citrussy whites such as Bacchus, Côtes de Gascogne, Rueda and other crisp whites such as Albarino, Alvarinho, Chablis, Picpoul de Pinet, Pinot Grigio and other unoaked Italian whites, dry Riesling, Gruner Veltliner . . . (See what I mean about it being versatile?)

Crisp dry rosé especially Provençal rosé. Provence-style rosé and goats cheese is a great pairing (think summer picnics!)

Fresh, fruity reds such as Beaujolais and other gamays, inexpensive red burgundy and Loire cabernet francs like Chinon, Saumur and Saumur-Champigny

So basically any wine - white, red or rosé - that’s young, fresh, unoaked and lightly chilled will go with goats cheese. Which makes it the perfect summer cheese.

PS If you’re a cheese aficionado you may be a fan of more mature goats’ cheeses in which case I would go for an aged white like a Chablis or a mature Alsace riesling too as you can see from this post.

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