I’m making a spicy rigatoni (Carbone copycat recipe), and I’m wondering what the best wine would be to pair with it?
Sweet Riesling. Sweet mitigates spice.
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I’d keep it simple and hope for a decent pairing - Seghesio Sonoma Zinfandel.
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Zinfandel or Zin-based field blend is your best chance for success with that challenge. Something big and ripe like Nero d’avola or Negroamaro might work but I am less a fan of those.
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How about VIN Santo?
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My guess is it will be fairly wine friendly even with the spice, so I’d drink what you are in the mood for, but I’d gravitate toward zin, as mentioned, or anything red and fruity.
Probably some heavy cream involved? I think a Cali chard would even be fine, too.
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Zin, or Petite Sirah, or a crusty old vine Rhone blend (with plenty of Carignan) or a rude young Barbera.
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We have a ton of Zin, and it’s freezing here, so we’re going that route. Thanks for the suggestions. It made me realize that I don’t have enough Italian variety in the cellar.
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Good call with Zinfandel. If there’s some cream in the sauce and/or the spice level is only moderate, a rosé might be my choice in warmer weather.
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Let us know what wine you drank and how it paired!
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2018 Limerick Lane RR
The wine is phenomenal right now. It went really well with the rigatoni. There may be a better match, but it was really good. I think I may have to explore this wine pairing.
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I’m actually making this on Friday and love some rosso with it. Picked some up today on the way home for this very dish actually. My first love of red wine is Sangiovese (mainly BdM) but I can’t keep the Rosso’s around due to the speed I go through them.
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That’s a great pairing; a big, fruity zin was def the answer here.
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Barbera all the way. Try it, you’ll like it!
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I have some BdM, but I wasn’t sure if that would work. I mentioned upthread that I need more Italian varietals. I do need to pick up some Chianti, Rosso and Barbera.
Also, which recipe do you use?
Just a typical spicy rigatoni recipe and I add a 1/2lb of mild Italian and a 1/2lb of hot Italian to it. I’ve been to Carbone (it’s highly overrated) and had their version, and I can say with 100% certainty that mine is better.
If you want a phenomenal Rosso that is inexpensive, look for the Le Ragnaie RdM. For the price and in general, Le Ragnaie makes some of the best Sangiovese in the world. I also look for some Elio Altare Barbera if you are trying to stack some daily drinkers that are under $30.
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Zin is a great choice if you want a red wine to pair with food with bold flavors and spice. Barbera would be good too.
Tannin becomes bitter when paired with food that has heat and so your cab, Barolo, maybe Brunello might fare poorly.
A delicate wine like Burgundy may just get lost some behind the bold flavors.
Plenty of fruit and low tannin is a good way to go.
Similar approach works well for meals like carne asada and Korean BBQ (depending a bit on what exactly you’re having).
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In my experience, I think spicy food gets a worse reputation for being difficult to pair with than it deserves - especially stuff that isn’t really that spicy such as vodka sauce (even “spicier” renditions). Sure, maybe the more pepper forward dishes from central and South Asia might call for a bit of residual sugar, but I think that’s limiting, spice tolerance allowing. Drives me up a wall when I hear seasoned wine folks indicate that the only appropriate parenting for spicy food is something like an off-dry Riesling - sure it works, but its needlessly dogmatic and narrow. I’ve found great results pairing Beaujolais with very spicy Thai for instance. The fruity, floral notes from the chilies are very well accentuated by the same notes in the wine. Had tremendous results recently pairing a bone dry Sauvignon Blanc with Laotian food, the tropical and herbaceous notes in the wine really sang in that context and never did I cry out for residual sugar.
So long as you avoid high tannin and high alcohol wines or anything thats extremely delicate I think it’s harder to go wrong than conventional wisdom would lead us to believe.
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Le Ragnaie makes an excellent RdM. I’d way rather have that than a lot of lesser BdMs. Not sure it would be my choice with this, though it also wouldn’t particularly work badly.
As for your suggested rigatoni recipe, I do like heavy on the Calabrian chili, but I also often add sausage and make sure to cook in cast iron at high heat to get some texture.
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My suggestion would have been Nero d’Avola, probably something from Gulfi. Big and rich but fresher and less chewy than traditional interpretations. Occhipinti’s are also excellent but for this dish I’d go with Gulfi.
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