Sometimes you just want to drink wine with dinner. And with the amount of pasta I’ve been eating lately, I seem to be pulling out the wine glasses more than usual. Not that I think you can only drink wine with pasta, but that’s when I think of it most.
Recently I received a sample of Graffigna Centenario Malbec 2010 – supposedly the perfect match for the summer barbeque season. Graffigna, a winery in Argentina, tasked Sara Bigelow of the Brooklyn-based Meat Hook butcher shop with creating a sausage recipe inspired by and using this wine (recipe shared at the end of this post).
Even though I did not make this sausage, I still appreciated this wine paired with a variety of foods. First I tried it along with the fruit and fondue I shared with you last month. The sweetness of the chocolate fondue overpowered the wine a little too much for me, but was still good with the fruit by itself.
Later while still drinking the wine, I poured some into a meat sauce I was making to go over pasta for dinner (don’t judge I know you drink while cooking too) because I thought the slight pepper taste would work well. And the result? It was wonderful! Both in the sauce and served with the pasta. I need to mix wine into my pasta sauce more often, and will be searching for this wine in particular at my local liquor store for a repeat.
(I apologize for the lack of a wine-expert review on tannins and such other terms I don’t truly understand. In my world, I either like a wine or a don’t.)
THE MEAT HOOK’S MALBEC AND ROSEMARY SAUSAGE
Serves 8
Ingredients:
2-1/2 lbs fatty pork
20 grams Kosher salt
3 grams cayenne
5 grams paprika
3 grams ground black pepper
2 grams white sugar
8 grams garlic
5 grams minced rosemary
2 oz Graffigna Centenario Malbec 2010
Directions:
- Grind the pork and garlic together. Add salt, and mix well by hand. Add the rest of your spices, and continue mixing by hand for two minutes. Add red wine and continue mixing until liquid is fully incorporated. Once the sausage has begun to bind to itself, form a small patty with your hand. Turn your hand upside down, and if the sausage does not stick, continue to mix. Once the sausage will stick to your hand, form into patties or stuff into natural hog casing. The Meat Hook recommends 4- to 5-inch links, or small pinwheels. Grill and enjoy with a glass of Graffigna Centenario Malbec 2010.
Disclosure: I received a full sample bottle of Graffigna Centenario Malbec 2012 from The Thomas Collective. I was not compensated for this post. Thoughts and opinions are my own.
