Italian pine nuts. We use them in other dishes without problem.
What grows together goes together: so crisp Ligurian whites…
The only universal wine truth that is universally true.
Yes it does.
They are a bit hard to find, but if you can try something like Terenzuola Cinque Terre Bianco or Cantina Cinque Terre Costa de Campu. Easier to find is Vernaccia di San Giminano from producers such as Montenidoli.
My pesto recipe calls for blanching the basil, toasting the pine nuts, sautéing the garlic…it “tames” some of those raw flavors, and I will bet with Suzanne goat cheese, it would be way easier to pair with. My recipe calls for a bit more work, but for those with difficulty with raw garlic, it does the trick.
You should always blanch basil if you’re going to cut or chop it, otherwise it turns black. The blanching doesn’t harm the flavor as long as you only do it for a second and then immediately cool with ice water. And nuts too - when they’re in cookies or cake there’s a lot more flavor if they’re toasted just before using.
Anyway, that’s some good pesto Merrill.
Goat cheese is delicious, but I wouldn’t want to give up my Parmesan!
What grows together goes together: so crisp Ligurian whites…
This makes no sense.
???
Basil originated somewhere in India. It’s grown in every state of the US these days as well as Mexico and Canada, and probably in most countries of Europe. So by that logic, it goes with everything. And in fact, it pretty much does. Look at all the answers above - whites, no whites, reds, no reds, fruity reds, dry reds, etc.
That’s a somewhat literal minded reduction to the absurd of a glib but valid maxim to the effect that traditional European regional wines and regional cuisines have evolved together and thus tend to make for good food-wine pairings. Since a lot of folks were singling out regional Italian wines in any case, it seemed logical to look at regional Italian wines from the region where pesto originates. With Pigato and Vermentino people had already got there, in fact.
If you are partial to reds, try a Rossese, Anfosso’s if you can find one.
Only use Mediterranean pine nuts in your pesto. Some Asian pine nuts can cause a condition called “pine mouth” that makes any wine taste horrible for a period of several days to a month.
a glib but valid maxim to the effect that traditional European regional wines and regional cuisines have evolved together and thus tend to make for good food-wine pairings.
William - that’s confusing correlation with planning. You know better than I do that the wines we’re drinking today have nothing to do with the wines people were drinking five hundred, three hundred, or even fifty years ago. Bretty, bacteria-infected, VA-ridden wines were the norm for most people. They were consumed because that’s what people had, not because they tweaked their recipes to work with spoilage bacteria.
They planted the grapes their grandparents grew, or the grapes the latest conqueror introduced. If those were better, they were kept, otherwise they were discarded. And “better” generally meant higher-yielding.
And people weren’t sitting around musing over pairings, they were growing what they could so that they could stay alive. If wheat didn’t grow, the grew rye because it gave a better yield. They might have loved beef but goats may have been more self-sufficient, or pigs. And they weren’t trying hundreds of grape varieties to get just the right one. For centuries, as cuisines were evolving, the average individual was generally suspicious, illiterate, untravelled, and at the mercy of plagues, overlords, bandits, and bad weather. And in many places, when phylloxera hit, if they kept making wine in the area, they planted different grapes after they learned about grafting.
The idea that somehow things evolved “together” discounts history and evidence in favor of a romantic view of the picturesque European peasantry living close to the land and planning to develop the Slow Food movement. “Pairing” wine and food is a completely modern phenomenon.
Big-Ass white Bordeaux; any dense Semillon-Sauvignon blend.
Dan Kravitz
Or if using Chinese pine nuts, Baijiu.
'Zackly. A nice fresh Pigato from Liguria was made for pesto sauces. A match made in heaven -
Don’t even think about pine nuts from China, but half and half Romano and Parmesan is a wonder.
After a lengthy discussion with Carrie:
Fume Blanc
Bridesmaid White (SB/Semillon blend)
Lighter Chianti
Suzanne, that sounds delicious! Have to try that now.
I prefer bigger whites with some acid for pesto.
it is a Marcella Hazan truc. Thin it a little with the pasta water.
Riesling sometimes has a basilicum note on the nose. Although I have never tried it, it might be a good match. I would go with a Kabinett, perhaps lightly sweet or even a trocken one.
Great question. Pesto combines the saltiness of the dried cheeses, the sweet herbaciousness of the basil, the nuttiness of the pine nuts (or walnuts or hazelnuts or macadamias if you prefer those) and the oily texture of olive oil. It’s that last ingredient that makes the sauce a problem for us wine drinkers as the sweet olive oil coats the palate and taste buds.
For this reason alone, I strongly recommend a methode traiditionelle sparkling wine such as Champagne or good quality Sekt or Cremant simply because the effervescence cleans the palate and the toastiness of the lees matches the nuts and the high acidity compliments the salty cheese. Overall it also won’t clash too much with the basil.
Of course, this is always a cheat because good Champagne and sparkling wine matches well with all food due to its palate cleansing abilities. If I had to be pressed for a non sparkling option, it would be either New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc or a German Riesling Kabinett or Spatlese.
If you follow your logic, Greg, no one would ever have come up with any good recipes. They would have just stuffed their face with whatever was available. I think you underestimate people’s capacity to notice what tastes good and what doesn’t, and what tastes better when it’s with something else. How did we get condiments, for example?
In Liguria, they had a range of grapes and vegetables and herbs. Why wouldn’t even the peasants realize that some things paired better than others?