Photo: James River Media
A quick, easy path through the world of food and wine
Have you ever experienced a near-perfect wine and food pairing? I wonder if I ever have. As chef/owner of Milano’s in Lynchburg and amateur wine sommelier, I always try and give our guests a proper wine pairing. Coordinating the right wine to drink with the right food is an art and a professional skill requiring years of training. However, with a few examples and some basic concepts, you can impress even the most sophisticated palate.
While we won’t dive deeply into food archaeology, let’s start with a few classic combinations and how they came about. Wine came first, then dishes of the region were made to complement the wine. This is most often seen in Europe, especially Spain, France and Italy. With the complexity of dishes today, assessing the right combinations is more difficult than it was several hundred years ago. In the past, cooks prepared traditional dishes in what I call a singular way, meaning that one flavor was prominent over the others.
Photo: James River Media
France
If I had to decide on one food and wine pairing that really stands out, I would look to France. While abroad for almost a decade, I visited many places including the countryside of Burgundy. A Jamaican-born French citizen, Jenifer, and her native French husband Phillippe invited me to their country home. The meal, prepared that evening by Phillippe’s mother, featured a Boeuf Bourguignon, a traditional beef stew with vegetables from the region.
That evening Phillippe showed me his family’s wine cave. After creeping through a small door, he immediately went to the far back corner of the dark and musty cellar and dusted off a bottle. “C’est l’heure,” he said. “It’s time” or literally “it’s the hour.” This particular red pinot noir was laid down for nearly 20 years. We were about to awaken the sleepy giant.
After a slow decanting and an hour to breathe, the fruit-forward pinot blend had lost most of its acidity. The silky smooth tannins and roasted mushrooms finish made up for it. Phillippe’s mother’s beef stew was perfect. It was rich, yet simple, the carrots and mushrooms swimming in the sauce tasted newly discovered, yet very nostalgic. The local red table wine used to slow cook the beef matched up so well with our cellar find — a match Bacchus would approve.
Boeuf Bourguignon (Burgundy Beef)
- 4 Tablespoons butter
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
- 4 lbs of beef chuck, cut into 2-inch cubes
- Splash of Brandy
- 3 cups red Burgundy wine
- 2 cups of white or brown mushrooms
In a Dutch oven, caramelize onions in half of the butter and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add vegetable oil to Dutch oven. In small batches, sear the beef in the pot, and set aside. Remove all fat left over. Deglaze the pan with a splash of Brandy and the wine. Return the meat to the pot, and cover. Braise the meat in the oven for 3 hours.
In the last 5 minutes of cook time, sauté the mushrooms in the remaining butter. Add the reserved onions and mushrooms to the beef, and cook for an additional 30 minutes.
Remove all ingredients from the pot with a slotted spoon. Boil the cooking liquid over medium heat for about 10 minutes, until thickened. Add the beef and vegetables back into the reduced jus. Reheat for 2 minutes, and serve.
Italy
On the other side of the Atlantic on the Mediterranean and Adriatic sea, pizza is eaten with wine. Pepperoni pizza, with its light tomato sauce, slightly salty mozzarella cheese and spiced-up beef pepperoni is a perfect pairing for Sangiovese. A red wine from Tuscany paired with pizza will surprise you. Sangiovese, though not the most widely produced, is one of the most important grapes in Italy. Sangiovese grapes are so versatile; we wouldn’t have Chianti or Brunello di Montalcino or Montepulciano without them.
Sangiovese grapes hail from Tuscany and can be found in many blends throughout Italy. Sangiovese can produce wines with great acidity and forward tannins, which makes for a great food wine. These flavors include cherries, sage, tobacco and some minor stone fruit notes, depending on how ripe it is. Sangiovese-based wines could use a little chill, so put them in the fridge 20 minutes ahead of time and serve immediately.
Spain
Now let’s head over to Spain and talk about seafood paella. Paella, a hearty peasant dish, adapts to whatever is available in the region. Paella consists of different types of meat, vegetables, seafood, sometimes snails, mussels and clams, all cooked together in a large pan over an open fire with rice. Photo: James River Media
The Rioja Region in Northern Spain has amazing wines, and in the mid 1800s they were the most popular wines in the world. The vineyards of France were destroyed by a pest called phylloxera at the time, and people were searching for alternative wines. When you look into a glass of Rioja, it might seem translucent due to its thin blue skin, but this wine has a beautiful structure and a long finish on both sides of your tongue. The aromas of citrus and lime and herbs like tarragon and marjoram with the chalky soil go perfectly with slow-cooked paella.
Seafood Paella
- 4 Tablespoons olive oil
- 3 chicken drumsticks
- 3 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 roasted red peppers, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 3 medium-size tomatoes, chopped roughly, no seeds
- 2 cups Bomba rice
- 1/4teaspoon saffron, optional
- 1 Tablespoon paprika
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 6 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups mussels
- 2 cups clams
- 12 shrimp
- 5 ounces calamari
- Fresh, chopped parsley and lemon juice for garnish
Add olive oil to a wide, shallow pan, and brown chicken on both sides. Remove chicken. Add onions, peppers and garlic, and cook for 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, and cook until broken up a bit. Add the rice, saffron, paprika, salt and pepper, and awaken the spices for a few minutes. Add stock, browned chicken, mussels, clams, shrimp and cook on low heat for 20 minutes, until most of the liquid has been absorbed into the rice. Add calamari, and cover for 10 minutes. Garnish with fresh, chopped parsley and lemon juice.
Balancing flavors
When eating foods that tend to be sweet, spiced up and aromatic, go against the flow and make the pairing clash. Contrast the bright crisp flavors of the wine with warm and plushy notes in the dish. Try a wine that can be chilled with a higher level of acidity like a sauvignon blanc. Sauvignon blanc from Australia and New Zealand tends to have higher acidity and more tropical notes of lime, lemongrass and green apple. Other regions of the world like the Loire Valley and Bordeaux produce more subtle and balanced traits. The acidity in sauvignon blanc paired with sushi, Indian or even Mexican food will reignite the palate after each bite and sip combination.
Photos: James River Media
Another pair to try at home
Let’s prepare a delicious sweet potato. First, get a bottle of wine with high acidity, like a sauvignon blanc. With the addition of a few ordinary ingredients like tahini paste, garlic, tomato, red onion and some spices you can make a perfect match. The brightness from sauvignon blanc with the warm, spiced-up sweet potato will make you feel like a pro.
New loaded sweet potato
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- Salt
- Pepper
- Olive oil
- Cumin
- Coriander
Tahini garlic sauce*
- 1 cup of seasoned chickpeas
- 1 cup of cherry or grape tomatoes, cut into fourths
- 1/4red onion, sliced thin
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
- Pinch of fresh cilantro, chopped
- Pinch of parsley, chopped
- *TAHINI GARLIC SAUCE
- 6 Tablespoons Tahini paste
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 1 lemon, juice and zest
- Pinch of salt
- 2 Tablespoons water, if necessary
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roast sweet potatoes with the skin on for 40 minutes. Cool and remove skin. Cut in half lengthwise. Season to taste with salt, pepper, olive oil, cumin and coriander.
In a mixing bowl, combine the Tahini paste with garlic, lemon juice, zest and salt. Season to taste, and adjust the thickness with water as necessary.
In another mixing bowl, season chickpeas with salt, pepper, olive oil, cumin and coriander. Toss in the tomato, red onion, sesame seeds, cilantro and parsley.
Place potatoes on a service platter and drizzle liberally with the Tahini garlic sauce. Place the other ingredients on top in a nice, pretty pile. ✦
Special thanks to Jason Arbusto, Milano’s owner and chef, for sharing and preparing these recipes!