Vegetarian Dishes and Wine Pairing

[Rebel Rose]

A discussion in FM&N and a current thread on pairing wine with French onion soup got me thinking . . .

Assuming that "vegetarian" entrees might include fish or eggs, but with an emphasis on truly veg dishes, what are some excellent pairings that you have tried? Are there wines you would fall back on when unsure?

Some of my favorite veg entrees:

* A classic veg dish with wine, of course, would be linguine with white truffles.

* Spinach and mushroom lasagna, or eggplant lasagna, or eggplant Parmesan

* We often make frittatas for dinner (heavy on the mushrooms) and we call them "crustless pizza." Or use the bread machine to produce a simple pizza crust which we roll and stuff with cheese, for an heirloom tomato, caramelized onion, and basil pizza.

* Mushroom and asparagus risotto (I seem to be big on mushrooms . . .)

Not to mention the salads, soups, side dishes like grilled portabellas with Gorgonzola, and desserts that are all veg and go well with wine.

Since I love mushrooms (apparently) I tend to gravitate toward pinot noir or sangiovese for these dishes, although I also love an oily roussanne or Rhone white blend as well.

[Brad Ballinger]

In her great cookbook, Vegatarian Cooking for Everyone, Deborah Madison devotes a couple of pages to pairing wine with vegetarian cuisine.

[Milagai]

Don't know much about wine, but people have recommended that

wines from Alsace - not just gewurtztraminer for Indian food,

vegetarian or otherwise...

My point is that it's the spice level and content of the food, not

whether it's vegetarian or not, that may be the key....

(and no, if it contains fish it's not vegetarian )

Here's one opinion on which wines to pair with Indian food:

http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/eat_feat_wine_curry.asp

And here's a link for wine with vegetarian food:

http://wine.newarchaeology.com/wine_vegetarian.php

Milagai

[carswell]

Four more that spring to mind:

- A dry to off-dry Alsatian gewurztraminier with red-skinned new potatoes boiled until just tender, sliced while hot, piled into a buttered baking dish, topped with slices of raw-milk Munster, sprinkled with cumin seeds and run under the broiler until the chesse melts and bubbles.

- Nebbiolo, mature enough to be yielding, young enough to be vibrant, with a tortino gorgonzola (individual gorgonzola soufflé).

- Mature nebbiolo, Burgundy and Claret with mushroom ragout.

- Provençal-type rosé with tarte aux blettes (swiss chard, golden raisin and pine nut pie in an olive oil crust dusted before serving with powdered sugar).

[Rebel Rose]

Thanks, Milagai and carswell.

A quick search also turns up a previous thread on Reds with Indian Cuisine.

I associate a lot of spice and heat with Indian cuisines, however, so that would be a challenging matchup for wine . . .

And a clip from my cookbook, Fresh from Dover Canyon:

Wines are generally paired with food around two criteria—weight and flavor.  It sounds odd at first to think of wine having weight, but wine does have a certain heft on the palate.  Some of that heft is due to tannic structure—Cabernets and Syrahs have plenty of tannin, while Pinot Noirs are generally lighter. A wine’s weight also depends on its alcohol content.  Higher levels of alcohol give wine a thicker mouthfeel.  Wines with a higher alcohol content cling to the glass more, having thicker "legs," and considerably more weight on the palate.  Swirled water, for instance, has no legs—but swirled brandy has drips like cake frosting. 

To choose a wine for a particular dish or meal, I  consider the weight of the food before anything else.  If it’s heirloom tomatoes, lightly oiled pasta, salad, or pale meats, I would choose from a spectrum of wines that might include whites and light-bodied reds.  If a dish involves red meat, heavy sauces, and comforting carbohydrates like mashed potatoes, I would gravitate toward heavier reds like Cabernet, Syrah, and Zinfandel.

The second pairing criterion is flavor.  I try to match wines with foods that have similar flavors.  The tricky thing is to look for flavors that are really evident in the dish, because sauces, grilling, and herbs can really affect the overall flavor and feel of a dish.    For instance, we like to grill racks of baby New Zealand lamb, rubbed with sea salt, coarsely ground black pepper, and herbs de Provence.  Lamb is generally considered a light meat, but the pepper, lavender, and other herbs in the rub give it an incense-like finish, and barbecuing imparts a light char.  Therefore, Syrah and Zinfandel are good matches for an otherwise feminine cut of meat.  A light vegetarian pasta heavily spiced with garlic, roasted tomatoes and peppers, and perhaps caramelized onions would be better with a spicy Sangiovese than a crisp white wine.

To add to the confusion, you can taste a thousand Chardonnays and find flavors ranging from light, crisp, pear flavors to heavy butterscotch.  Red wines offer flavors starting at strawberry and working their way toward road tar. 

[Milagai]

Not sure where this link belongs but may be here:

Indian Thanksgiving feast with extensive discussion of wine

recommendations:

http://www.avalonwine.com/East-Indian-Thanksgiving-Feast.php

Milagai

[davebr]

Ive had some fabulous scrambled eggs with truffle oil and sauterns.