Friday, December 11, 2009

Sylvaner & Pasta ( A Wine-Food Pairing That Blew Us Away)

It's no secret we are avid home cooks. In fact after all this time it is still our favorite thing to do and even better when we take home a wine that really sings with our dish.

Last week I made a creamy seafood pasta with American scallops and Alaskan wild-caught Salmon fish roe from Vital Choice (a seafood website I highly recommend), you can see the result to the left. I am the pasta queen. Having cooked for 5 to 7 people for years now, I have made lots of pasta, some fancy some some not. This one was made with fettuccine cooked just under al dente and then mixed into cream, grated sheep's milk cheese (I used Hirtenkase from our shop), lemon juice, white wine, lemon zest, pink flake salt (also from our shop) and scallops. Top with salmon caviar and you have perfection. The trick with this kind of pasta is timing. Don't let the pasta sit dry while you work on the sauce, and serve immediately once the consistency is correct (creamy, not too thin or thick).

The pairing with the Pierre Frick Sylvaner is what knocked our socks off. This Alsatian wine is another gem from distributor and importer Williams Corner wines. Pierre Frick is a pioneer of biodynamic farming in Alsace, starting the practice in 1981. All wines are certified biodynamic and fermented naturally with wild yeasts and spontaneous fermentation. Minimal sulfites are used - 15 parts per million where the maximum allowed in Alsace is 200 parts per million. Unlike some other Alsatian producers the Pierre Frick wines aim for low alcohol and terroir-driven wines, so while each wine shows its varietal character they all have an underlying signature that speaks of their terroir. This dry white showed lovely ripe apple, mineral and soft citrus flavors that made our dish really come to life.

We will be sampling this wine at our William street store December 11 from 4-8p and the Pierre Frick Muscat at our Plank Road store (same time).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

OMG..your blog looks super yummy. Sylvaner & Pasta ( A Wine-Food Pairing That Blew Us Away) will do better with red wine. Would love to taste it. colonialgifts.co.uk