Cooking with wine (part two)

ON the same vein as last week, being the “season to be jolly,” cooking with wine would be an excellent way to initiate your family into the pleasures and taste experiences of dishes flavored with wine.

First of all, is cooking with wine healthy? It is so definitely healthy, but caveats need to be followed as for the taste of your dish.

1) The wine you use needs to be drinkable. By that, I mean is it must be clean and fresh. It shouldn’t taste like vinegar or be so old it’s lost all its fruit tastes.

2) Don’t use wines labelled as cooking wines which tend to be particularly poor quality and not that much of a saving over a cheap bottle of wine.

3) The most versatile wines are crisp, dry, unoaked whites such as and medium-bodied but not overly tannic reds like

4) A wine-based marinade will tenderize meat but it will change the flavor and make it more “gamey” if you do it for longer than a couple of hours.

5) Even in recipes that feature a significant amount of wine you usually need another ingredient such as stock, cream or passata (strained tomatoes) to balance it. A homemade chicken or vegetable stock is a boon.

There is a widespread misconception that it all cooks out but unless you’re cooking the dish for 3 hours or more there will be a residue depending on how much wine you’ve used. Worth bearing in mind if you’re cooking for kids or nondrinkers.

Don’t use too much wine.

“Follow the recipe, because using too much wine in your cooking can put the whole dish out of balance,” “You generally want the wine to be just one of the flavors that complements the food, not too dominant.

“If in doubt, add a splash and then taste the dish.”

To give you a starting recipe, let us bring your pasta sauce to a new level:

2 28 oz. cans whole peeled tomatoes or 1 packet of tomato paste 1 medium onion, finely chopped 1/2 head of garlic, very finely minced 8 oz. guanciale (salt-cured pork jowl), finely chopped or you can use bacon or chorizo de bilbao.

1/4 cup olive oil, or palm or canola oil

1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes 1 cup dry white wine 1 tsp. sugar (optional) Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper

1 lb. penne or other tubeshaped pasta, or use you old reliable spaghetti or macaroni

Finely grated Pecorino or Parmesan (de bola) cheese.

Cook as you would pasta sauce, garlic, onions, meats, sauces, etc. Your usual way would be fine, so you won’t go out of your comfort zone too much.

When sauce is almost done, cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until al dente; drain pasta.

Add pasta to sauce and toss to coat. Serve topped with Pecorino.

Sauce can be made four days ahead. Let cool, then chill until cold. Cover and keep chilled.

Bring up the bar to your pasta sauce, happy holidays! Plant your own herbs. ‘Till next week, from very own Artie Sy,

BON APPETIT.

Merlot. Pinot Grigio