Now the reason I am blogging about my class is because we had a "field trip" to a restaurant where we put the skills we have learned in class to first-hand work. Basically, we got to eat an amazing four-course meal and drink wine all for academic purposes. I know, my life is very stressful. I love Italy because of its strong roots to food, wine, and the beauty of pairing them together. This class seems like an odd/silly one to take but it has really opened my eyes to Italian culture and has made me feel more immersed and appreciative of being here. The best way to learn about a culture, aside from learning the language, is to eat their cuisine and drink their wine! Back to the dinner...
We ate at Cosa Toscana and the atmosphere was very rustic, dim lighting and lots of wood. We have four courses, each with its own wine. I'll talk about each dish, wine and the overall pairing.
First Dish: Prosciutto di Pratomagno con Mozzarella
Wine
Type: White
Name: Greco di Tufo
Grape: Greco Bianco
Region: Tufo in Campania
12.5% 2010 D.O.C.G.
The wine was a light golden color and smelled of sweet apples and had earthly aromas, more spring than heavy vegetation. The wine was not very strong in its aromas and the taste was similar to the smell. It has a light body, meaning it rests lightly on the tongue and a medium acidity. I found the wine to be semi/dry, meaning I could not taste the sugars in the wine and there was some residual salivation after I tasted the wine. Simple wine but when paired with the prosciutto con mozzarella, the wine balanced nicely with the meat, bringing out the saltiness in it but left my palate feeling smooth afterwards.
Overall, I found the pair refreshing because the wine brought out various flavors in the food but it was not over powering nor the greatest pair I have had. Simple wine and a simple dish. We learned in class that when pairing, you are supposed to look at the characteristics, aromas and textures in both the dish and wine in order to pair. So simple--simple can go together, complex and complex but also simple and complex. There is no exact science to figuring out what wine with go with what dish, but we can use the knowledge of the dish and the wine to hopefully choose an enjoyable, in not amazing pair. Practice makes perfect!
Second Dish: Penne with Meatballs! (no, they were not the size of my head)
Wine
Type: Red
Name: Borghi Nero D'Avola
Grape: Nero D'Avola
Region: Sicilia
13% 2010 I.G.T
This red was very complex and bold. It was a deep red, burgundy color (I always enjoy the various colors red wines have. Fun fact: red wines get their color from the grape skins being added for a period of time during the making of the wine) When smelling the wine, I picked up red berries and deep earthy aromas. It is always difficult to fully express what you smell, sometimes it is difficult to find the exact word for the scent you are smelling. Taste can be challenging too, I was not used to having to really think about what I was smelling and tasting, it is not apart of the American culture to analyze what is going on in our mouths. I appreciate Italian culture more for doing so. This wine had a medium body, semi-dry, high tannins (gums felt very dry after drinking it) and medium acidity.
The wine had a bold taste and paired very nicely with the bold flavors in the pasta dish. Both the dish and wine were full of flavor and they balanced each other nicely. The wine brought out the flavors in the pasta and meat but the pasta did not bring out the alcohol in the wine, making it go down smoothly. I would consider this to be a good pair because the wine brought out characteristics in the pasta that the pasta did not have on its own. Unfortunately, the pasta had a large amount of peas in it, sadly I am allergic, so I was only able to take a few bites before my mouth got itchy. Luckily I had the wine to cleanse my mouth :]
Third Dish: Tagliata di Manzo con Rucola e Grana
Wine
Type: Red
Name: Primitivo Salento
Grape: Primitivo
Region: Puglia
13.5% 2010 I.G.T
Compared to the first red, this wine was a deeper, rich red. The smell was also different, it had floral, sweet berry aromas but when I drank it, the aromas were more earthly than floral. It had a medium body, high acidity, low tannins and was semi-sweet. The people around me couldn't smell the sweet berries but maybe they tasted them because we found it to be sweeter than dry. I really enjoyed the wine but when I had the steak and wine together I found the pair to be fairly neutral.
I didn't find that the wine did much to the dish and my mouth felt clean afterwards, the wine was almost a little too powerful for the heavy meat. It is also personal taste, others liked the pair but maybe my dislike for red meat had an effect on my reaction to the pair. Pairing is a personal experience, one person may find the pair to be perfect, where another might find it neutral or refreshing, it all just depends on the person and their mouth.
Fourth Dish: Crostata di Ricotta
Wine
Type: Liquoroso
Name: Zibibbo Sicilia
Grape: Moscato d'Alessandria
Region: Sicilia
16% I.G.T
This dessert wine was very sweet, sugary tasting. It tasted like fruit loops almost and smelled like them too. It was a beige color and paired with this cheesecake type dessert, it wasn't my favorite combination but I liked both of them individually. Maybe there was too much sweetness going on at once, but the texture of the ricotta with the intense taste of the wine was not my favorite.
The overall experience of the dinner was very exciting and fun. I enjoyed thinking about what I was eating and drinking and using what I have been learning in class in a real life situation. Every time I go out to dinner I critic the wine and how it effects what I am eating and vise-versa. I enjoy being more knowledgeable about wine and feeling like I have deepened my understanding of Italian culture. I wish I could travel to every region in Italy and try their local cuisine and wine. I will definitely come back to Italy in the future and see more of this amazing country.
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