Seven Food and Wine Pairings for a Pandemic
Spaghetti Hoops on Toast & Californian Zinfandel
I’ve had more tins of spaghetti hoops this year than I’ve had in the last ten. Whilst a stark reminder of my financial insecurity it’s one of the more joyous things to come out of the last few months. My Dad likes to serve them on toast alongside scrambled eggs whereas my best friend adds a little soy sauce and ketchup, with a cheese on toast side if they’re feeling fancy. Both are delicious to me.
The unwritten rule for pairing wine with pasta is that you should always go with an Italian wine from the region the pasta dish originates from. But let’s not do the Italian’s a disservice here by pretending they have anything to do with the comforting bastardisation that is a tin of spaghetti hoops.
Instead, a Californian Zinfandel, the cheaper the better. These wines burst with berry fruit and alcohol and have a touch of sweetness to them, perfect to sit alongside the sweet acidity of a spaghetti hoop dinner. If you’re feeling adventurous add a splash of the wine into the hoops as you’re heating them up.
Instant Ramen & Pinot Gris
Instant ramen ticks all of my in-lockdown-and-on-a-fraction-of-my-usual-pay dinner requirements: delicious, cheap and versatile enough to eat for multiple days in a row. Always with a softly cooked egg and sriracha; occasionally vegetables on the days I worry about getting enough nutrients and even rarer still, accompanied with marinated tofu or meat when there’s money to spare.
Ramen is full of delicious, savoury, umami flavours, which is great for my tastebuds, but not so much for a wine that wants to sit alongside it nicely. A classic wine and ramen pairing is Pinot Gris, and for good reason. Pinot Gris is the sweeter, oilier and more aromatic sibling of the bland and inoffensive Pinot Grigio that has become so popular. The aromatic sweetness of a Pinot Gris might appear gentle, but it’s strong enough to hold its own with the savoury heat of ramen and its thicker body gives the heat something to cut through. May its strength and resilience in the face of spicy and umami nourish you with some strength of your own.
Tuna Melt & Unoaked Chardonnay
We’ve recently discovered that one tin of tuna is enough to provide two tuna melts for two human beings and a small tuna dinner to keep one cat happy whilst we eat. For the melts we lace the tuna with sharp red onion that caramelises slightly as the cheese melts through. The cheese in question is often cheddar, sometimes Leerdammer and maybe a combination of the two if we’re feeling fancy.
Chardonnay is perfect here, it’s both a great fish wine and a great cheese wine. (You wouldn’t be able to tell from how frequently it is used, but red wine is a predominantly bad wine to pair with cheese, but that’s a discussion for another day). You don’t want an oaked Chardonnay here; it takes itself too seriously to deserve a tuna melt. Unoaked is best, giving a nice acidity that’ll cut through the cheese and still retain it’s notes of lemon and stone fruit to complement the tuna.
Serve the wine chilled and the tuna melt hot alongside a packet of ready salted crisps and pretend you’re in a pub with over six of your closest friends.
Linda McCartney Sausages with Hash Browns & Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon
I will never not be thinking about hash browns. This time last year I spent the night in A&E and the only thing that got me through was deliriously talking about hash browns with my best friend until I was discharged at 7am. I am at my most settled when I know there is a bag of them in the freezer, nestling against a white cardboard box of Linda McCartney’s vegetarian sausages. It’s a meal I turn to when I am hungover, tired or feeling low, which covers most days at the moment. It’s a meal that also requires the most comforting colour of wines: red.
A Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon to be precise. Chile produces a slightly lighter and less tannic version of Cabernet Sauvignon than other countries, which is perfect for this meal as it doesn’t call for anything abrasive. There is a ripe juiciness to this wine, all plums and red cherries that’ll cut through the salt and the oil of a hash brown and compliment the herbed savouriness of the sausages. Save a glass to drink in the bath afterwards, you deserve it.
(I would like it to be known that this pairing also applies to Potato Waffles impatiently cooked in the toaster and eaten so quickly it scalds the roof of your mouth, when hash browns are for whatever reason unavailable)
Fish Finger Sandwich & Côtes du Rhône
I’m talking about super basic fish finger sandwiches here. All pre-sliced bread, heavy on the butter and oozing tomato ketchup. Not one of those fancy gastro versions involving tartare sauce and mushy peas. Obviously I’m not here to tell you what is and isn’t the right way to construct a fish finger sandwich, we all have enough on as it is, but this pairing only works with the sweet and the sharp of tomato ketchup soaking through very flimsy bread onto your fingers.
The cheaper the better with the wine, as well as the bread. Côtes du Rhône is a region notorious for its blend of grapes, the most famous of which being Châteauneuf-du-Pape, but I’m gonna go entry level, run of the mill Côtes du Rhône here. Most of these blends are heavy on the Grenache and Syrah, which is a good thing. Cheaper will also mean younger so these wines will be light and bright enough to match the tomato ketchup acidity and breadcrumb crumb. Enough to cheer on both the fish finger sandwich and yourself while it’s at it.
I recommend adding chips to the sandwich if you have them in the freezer, a layer either side of the fish fingers takes it to the next level.
Spaghetti with Garlic, Olive Oil, Parsley & Parmesan & Fino Sherry
I currently live in a house where the cat is called Spaghetti, just so you can get an idea of where I’m at emotionally with this dish before I begin. Whereas some of these other dishes can allow for absentminded eating you have to pay attention when eating spaghetti, lest you flick sauce onto your top or overestimate the amount twirled onto your fork. Think of it as a form of the mindfulness that is so often discussed.
I’m very good at forgetting to eat until I am absolutely ravenous, and then I need something good and something quick. Garlic, olive oil, parsley and a little parmesan all make a good sauce in the ten minutes it takes for the pasta to cook. I like to add a little Fino Sherry (Tio Pepe is perfect) to the sauce because it makes me feel more put together than I actually am, as well as adding a nice depth.
With pasta, as I mentioned before, it is traditional to pair an Italian wine. But I like to pour myself a glass of fino as I pour a glass into the pasta, it only seems fair. It’s not a conventional pairing for either the spaghetti or the sherry, but the gentle salinity of the sherry, with notes of lemon and olive, mirror the spaghetti’s sauce perfectly and it works well enough for me.
Margherita & The Best Pizza Wine There Is
Endless lockdown days are currently marked by Pizza For Lunch and No Pizza For Lunch. If I had it my way there would be Pizza For Lunch everyday, but I do worry that would make the pizza less special. My budget only allows for supermarket pizza at the moment, which is fine as the high I get off the sugar laced tomato sauce and the way the cheese pulls away from my teeth as I bite down is enough to last me for days.
My very wonderful friend Sophie recently introduced me to a wine that is, and I cannot stress this enough, the best pizza wine there is. It’s this little Portuguese number from Aldi and it’s what can only be described as a Juicy Banger. To qualify as a Juicy Banger you must have enough fruit without bordering on jammy, a good acidity that doesn’t verge on harsh and very smooth tannins that don’t catch on your tongue. This wine has all three and pairs with pizza better than any other wine I’ve had. Try it and thank me later.
