Pairings | Vermentino

The best wine pairings for spaghetti alle vongole

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.

What impact does garlic have on wine pairing?

What impact does garlic have on wine pairing?

If you’re the kind of person (like me) who puts garlic into practically everything you cook you may regard this question as an irrelevance but some dishes are much more garlicky than others.

The best wine pairings for vitello tonnato

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?

The best wine pairings for seabass

The best wine pairings for seabass

Seabass is one of the most popular fish on restaurant menus these days - usually treated quite simply and rarely sauced. But what wine should you pair with it?

The best wine - and other - pairings for leeks

The best wine - and other - pairings for leeks

Leeks generally feature in dishes in their own right rather than as a side and have a mild sweet flavour you want to respect.

 The best wines to pair with courgettes or zucchini

The best wines to pair with courgettes or zucchini

There’a a fair chance that if you grow courgettes - or zucchini - you’re eating more than your fair share of them at this time of year but what wine should you drink with them?

Two exciting new pairings for asparagus

Two exciting new pairings for asparagus

I’ve been thinking about the tricky subject of wine with asparagus for long enough to have come up with a number of different pairings but I came across two this week that were really a bit of a revelation.

Grilled monkfish with salsa verde and vermentino

Grilled monkfish with salsa verde and vermentino

Monkfish is regularly referenced as a meaty fish you can pair with red wine, especially when it’s wrapped in pancetta but suppose you serve it with salsa verde instead as they did at the Seahorse al Mare pop-up in Dartmouth last week?

Vermentino and seafood

Vermentino and seafood

Normally this weekly post features a specific dish and wine but vermentino goes with so many fish dishes I think it’s worth flagging up its sheer versatility.

Leeks vinaigrette and Vermentino

Leeks vinaigrette and Vermentino

There were leeks everywhere you looked in the Languedoc last week so I decided to make a classic dish of leeks vinaigrette (and finely sliced serrano ham) as a starter for Sunday lunch with friends. Despite the vinegar and mustard in the dressing it’s not a sharp dish - the dominant note is the delicate, sweet, oniony taste of the leeks so I was looking for a light, unoaked white which wouldn’t mask that flavour.

 Italian spinach and ricotta pie with Soave (or Vermentino)

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.

 6 wines from grapes that begin with VE to drink on VE day

6 wines from grapes that begin with VE to drink on VE day

With VE day coming up on Friday you may have already made plans for what you’re going to eat and drink which could well be home-grown, UK produced, wine, beer or cider.

New wines from old families. Lunch with Australia’s First Families of Wine

New wines from old families. Lunch with Australia’s First Families of Wine

Lucy Bridgers reports: The quintessentially English Quo Vadis in London was the setting for a recent lunch hosted by Australia’s First Families of Wine, a group of 12 long-established family-owned companies

Tomato and tapenade tart

Tomato and tapenade tart

The most perfect Provençal-style summer tart from Alex Jackson's evocative book Sardine, named after his former London restaurant although you can now happily find him at Noble Rot Soho.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Flageolet Beans with Preserved Lemon Mayo

Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Flageolet Beans with Preserved Lemon Mayo

Many of this year's most appealing cookbooks are vegetarian which should be welcome to all of us who are looking for new ways of cooking and serving veg. This delicious recipe comes from Vegetarian Sheet Pan Cooking by food writer and private chef Liz Franklin.

Pizza 'claminara'

Pizza 'claminara'

Shellfish topped pizzas or pizzette have been right on trend recently and here's a great version from Mitch Tonks fab new cookbook Rockfish (which has a whole load of other recipes I want to cook).

What wine to drink with cuttlefish

What wine to drink with cuttlefish

Cuttlefish is a pain to prepare as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall points out in the Guardian today but it is particularly delicious to eat. It’s often partnered with robust flavours so you need to think in terms of equally intense flavoured wines.

Pasta with pesto and Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi

Pasta with pesto and Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi

This past week has reminded me yet again what a great match Italian whites are for food. Their lack of obvious character means they tend not to stand out in a tasting but they explode into life with a dish.

Duck liver, bacon and onions with orange wine

Duck liver, bacon and onions with orange wine

There’s still a lot of suspicion about orange wine with many in the wine industry taking the view that it’s faulty rather than, what it actually is, a different style of wine.

Chicken liver crostini and Rosso di Montalcino

Chicken liver crostini and Rosso di Montalcino

One of the most striking things about my trip to Tuscany last week was the reminder of how good young red wines are with Tuscan food - right the way through the meal, not just with the main course.

Blankbottle Limbic 2015

Blankbottle Limbic 2015

One of the most original and inventive wine producers I’ve come across is Pieter Walser of Blankbottle in Stellenbosch, South Africa but this is his zaniest concept yet.

Berry Bros & Rudd Reserve Red

Berry Bros & Rudd Reserve Red

Only a merchant with a pedigree like Berry Bros & Rudd could consider an £8.45 bottle a ‘house wine’ but if your usual fare is classed growth claret I guess it is.

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