Pairings | Spinach
Which wine pairs best with salad?
Asking which wine to pair with salad is a bit like asking about what wine to match with meat or fish. There's no single answer. It depends on the vegetables you use, what other ingredients it contains and what type of dressing you use.
The best wine pairings for ravioli and other filled pasta
Just as pasta pairings are all about the sauce, ravioli are all about the filling so you need to take account of what that’s based on and any accompanying sauce. Seafood is obviously going to need a different style of wine from a meaty filling like ox cheek
Which wines - or beers - pair best with cooked cheese?
Cheese and wine is a notorious minefield but is it any easier when the cheese is cooked? See my suggestions to match Mark Hix's delicious recipes in the Independent today:
Wines to pair with fennel
Fennel is one of the handful of vegetables that can influence a main course pairing - almost always for the better. Its aniseed flavour seems to have a pronounced affinity with many wines, especially whites. Here are some suggested matches with recipes that two British chefs have published this weekend - Gordon Ramsay in the Times and Skye Gyngell in the Independent on Sunday.
The best food pairings for Carmenère
You may not be familiar with Carmenère but it's a delicious red at this chilly time of year.
Buckwheat galettes with spinach béchamel
Although you can find any kind of recipe online these days nothing beats a beautiful cookbook and the new Fern Verrow book by Herefordshire farmers Jane Scotter and Harry Astley is one you're definitely going to want to own.
Spinach & agushi curry
I recently chaired a panel on women in food at the Abergavenny Food Festival which included the wonderful Zoe Adjonyoh. I hadn't seen her book Zoe's Ghana Kitchen before but discovered it was full of the most delicious recipes, many of them vegan.
Spinach & goat’s cheese croquetas
Of all the things I eat at Jose Pizarro's lovely tapas bar José, the croquetas are my favourite. Here's a recipe for the spinach ones from his brilliant book Basque.
Spiced Paneer, Spinach and Pea Grain Bowl with Mint Yoghurt Sauce
The big trend for cookbooks this year is vegetarian food and no-one is better able to hold your hand and give you inspiration than my pal Elly Pear. This delicious weekday recipe, which can be rustled up in 20 minutes, comes from her new book Green.
Smoked Salmon and Spinach Lasagne
I'm normally a bit daunted by chefs' books but Chefs at Home, a collection of recipes from some of Britain's best loved chefs which has been put together in aid of Hospitality Action, a charity that supports the restaurant industry, is full of the kind of food they actually make for their families.
Italian spinach and ricotta pie with Soave (or Vermentino)
To tell you the truth this is as much about the story behind the pie as the wine match but that was good too so let’s kick off with that.
Spinach and ricotta gnudi and Pecorino
“Tender little dumplings, as fragile as a pasta filling” is how Diana Henry describes gnudi in her fabulous new book How to Eat a Peach. (The word, which is pronounced new-dee means naked)
Simon Hopkinson's Oysters Rockefeller
I've always been intrigued by Oysters Rockefeller, described by the great Simon Hopkinson as "the best hot oyster dish I know". Here's his recipe.
Mac & Cheesy Greens Filo Pie
I absolutely love a pie so was immediately grabbed by the idea of this Mac & Cheesy Greens Filo Pie from Anna Shepherd's gorgeous new book Love Vegetables.
Fridge- or freezer-foraged cheese, onion and parsley pie
This is the kind of recipe (or rather idea) that I used to put on my old blog The Frugal Cook. But as I’ve given up on it (I know - I shouldn’t have done) I’m posting it here.
Is wine the best partner for pie?
We Brits don't need much encouragement to eat pies. But which is the better match - wine or beer?
What to drink with Turkish food
Turkish food is not traditionally accompanied by wine. And although the Turks do have a wine industry not much of it makes its way over here. But here are some thoughts on possible pairings for Mark Hix's Turkish inspired recipes in the Independent this weekend"
Matching wine and soup
One of the few food and drink combinations I don’t feel that happy about is wine and soup. Not all soups, obviously, but many of them. It has as much to do with the type of food soup is (wholesome and comforting) as its texture and temperature. If you’re having a bowl of soup on its own or as the main component of a light meal it seems superfluous to drink wine with it. Soup, unless it is virtually thick enough to stand a spoon in, doesn’t really need another liquid to accompany it. Especially if that liquid is chilled.