ADVERTISING: Advertorial — One magical day…
While it almost goes without saying, I’m going to say it anyway. We are spending more time at home. As part of that routine, we are pulling out recipes, new and old, to keep our homebound menus as creative as we can. Memories are made with new recipes and the wine we pair with them, but when we pull out some older ones, we are transported back to the first time we were introduced to the dish, and naturally, the wine we had with it.
My first and only time Mary and I traveled to Venice we were with friends of ours. Venice is a fascinating place; a true east-meets-west city built around its maritime roots as a trading hub with a once healthy and thriving seafood industry. To the north of Venice, like most of Italy, is a great wine producing region known for some of the best white wines made in all of Europe, and specifically, Italy. While we were fortunate to spend several days there, the first day was a magical experience of food and wine.
When we arrived and got settled, we decided to venture out for lunch. We found an inviting restaurant and the four of us sat down. The wine list featured many lovely white wines, and while here in the states Pinot Grigio has become a somewhat simplistic, inexpensive choice, in Italy, especially Northern Italy around Venice, the wine is revered. That day at lunch we discovered, too, that the wine adage “if it grows there it goes there,” at least for Europe, is absolutely grounded in indisputable fact.
We ended up selecting a lovely Pinot Grigio that, by most standards, was not inexpensive, but the wine was fabulous, showing great depth and layering of flavors. No “one-note-wonder” here! The wine was sleek and elegant. To Mary’s and our traveling companions’ disapproval I proceeded to order plate after plate from the seafood cart that or waiter rolled to the table. The cart was loaded with calamari, many kinds of shellfish and small fish all marinated in some of the most delicious olive oil and fresh herbs you could imagine. The meal finished with some great Italian cheeses and more crusty, Italian country bread. The meal was a joy!
That night, after a food and wine respite and a nice afternoon nap, we headed out again for dinner. Our friends had spent more time in Italy than I had at that point, so when we arrived at our dinner destination, Mary and I began navigating the wine list and our friends took responsibility for the menu. We were intrigued when they ordered for one of the courses pasta carbonara. Knowing not as much as they about Italian pasta courses, I expected pasta with the traditional tomato and meat sauce.
This pasta carbonara was prepared tableside and what a treat it was! I quickly learned that the base for the pasta sauce is raw egg, whisked together with very high-quality, grated parmesan cheese, sauteed mushrooms and crisp pancetta. The hot pasta is tossed into the mixture at the end and takes on a rich and creamy texture balanced by the crisp pancetta and the mushrooms adding a rich earthy flavor to the blend. It was a food epiphany! We had some sparkling left in our glasses and had ordered a delicious red wine from Chianti, both of which paired perfectly. Since that magical day in Venice, we have made the pasta carbonara dish at home frequently, it is one of our favorites, usually joined by some simply-sauteed Dover sole. We later included the recipe as one of our food pairings for one of our wine club selections. We have heard from many of our wine club members that to this day it is absolutely one of their favorite recipes and that it pairs well with many wines.
We had the pasta carbonara just last week and it instantly transported us back to our magical day in Venice some 15 years ago. It is the beauty, intrigue and inspiration of food and wine, and during a time when we are all staying at home, a great way to, psychologically at least, travel back to one of our favorite places for a brief moment.
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George Balling is co-owner with his wife, Mary Lancaster, of the dinner party, a wine and gift shop in Coeur d’Alene by Costco. The dinner party has won the award for best wine shop in North Idaho twice, including for 2018. George is also published in several other publications around the country. After working in wineries in California and judging many wine competitions, he moved to Coeur d’Alene with Mary more than 10 years ago to open the shop. You can also follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/#!/dinnerpartyshop.