3 WAYS WITH Pasta

Given how many ways there are of cooking pasta, you’re unlikely to want to drink the same kind of wine with each one. And as I’m sure you know, it’s not so much about the shape as the sauce. You’ll need a totally different wine for a crab linguine (a crisp white such as a Falanghina, I’d suggest) than for a robust beef shin ragu (a hearty red such as a Nero d’Avola or Zinfandel). Even for a tomato sauce, it’s going to make a difference whether the tomato is added raw, in which case you might go for a crisp white again, or cooked to a jammy sweetness which would taste better with a red.

In general, I find Italian wines work better with pasta dishes than do the more fruit-forward international varieties with higher levels of alcohol and residual sugar. At least, that’s what Italians would drink, though you obviously don’t have to follow suit. It also depends where you are in Italy. In Chianti, for example, it would be a question of drinking a lighter red than you would with the main course. If you were on the Tuscan coast, it would more likely be a Vermentino.

CARBONARA

Although carbonara shouldn’t be made with cream, it is creamy. And having said I generally go for Italian wines, it’s cracking, I have found, with white Burgundy including Chablis or a good English Chardonnay.

VONGOLE

I’d go for a sharper, less-rich white with a vongole, which is made with white wine and clams. Most dry Italian whites work, even Pinot Grigio if it’s from Alto Adige. Picpoul is perfectly fine, too.

PUTTANESCA

Puttanesca sauces need a robust red that can cope with the full-on combo of garlic, anchovies, capers, chillies and olives. Sicilian reds such as Negroamaro and Nero d’Avola tend to work best, but you could do worse than a Malbec.