On a beautiful Sunday morning we made the drive over Kootenay Pass to Trail, where we entered the Royal Theatre to watch the first special presentation of the season. The Bolshoi Ballet production of Swan Lake was as wonderful as we expected and it whetted our appetite for the coming season of operas, ballets and theatrical plays that we are now able to watch in theatres. It might not be quite as satisfying as seeing the performances in person, but it’s a great and very practical alternative.
We left the theatre and stopped to browse the Ferraro Foods selection of Italian items before heading home. I picked up a couple packages of pasta, a small block of pecorino (one of my favourite cheeses) and a jar of vegetarian antipasto. On the drive home I could almost taste the simple dinner I had planned.
We arrived back at dinnertime and I put a pot of water on to boil and set a frying pan on the burner to heat some olive oil while I chopped and onion to start the sauce. Once the onion had softened nicely, I added a couple handfuls of the scrumptious cherry tomatoes that are hanging heavily beside our deck, some dried Italian spices, a couple cloves of chopped garlic and a splash from the bottle of Chianti I had just opened. The newly purchased bowtie pasta went into the boiling water and I covered the tomatoes so that they would steam and begin to pop their skins.
About 15 minutes later we were sitting the deck, enjoying the late summer heat and clinking our glasses of wine before we began to eat bowls of pasta, which were topped with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, with the antipasto and chunks from a baguette. Perfect.
Why Chianti? Well, it just happens to be a wine that goes with anything that includes tomatoes — sauces, lasagna, bruschetta, stews, etc.
Chianti is named for the region within Tuscany where it is made. Most versions are now made with 100 per cent Sangiovese grapes, a shift from years ago, when the wines in that area often included some white grapes.
These are straightforward, no-nonsense wines that are made to be enjoyed with food. Sangiovese doesn’t create a particular complex wine but has a flavor that marries well with food, complementing it rather than competing. No sweetness, little fruitiness, just a good, unpretentious quaff that is as comfortable in a ceramic tumbler as it is in Riedel crystal stemware designed specifically for the wine.
Chianti classico can be made from grapes produced area that extends to Florence in the north and Siena in the south. The region is only about 100 square miles. Other types of Chianti can be produced in a much larger area that extends to the province of Pisa and the Tyrrhenian Sea.
I mention the tumblers and glasses for a reason. At home, I am pretty fussy about my glasses. I prefer crystal with long stem so that I can see and smell the wine and it allows me to drink without putting finger marks on the bowl. But in Italian trattorias it is common to be served wine in glass tumblers, of the sort that we would be more like to serve water in. Those tumblers are much more practical at the traditional family table, where bowls of steaming food, plates of cheeses, meats and olives, and big loaves of unsalted bread compete for space. As dishes are passed from diner to diner, the likelihood of knocking over stemmed glasses is pretty high. Tumbers are more likely to survive the activity.
When I am planning a quick, Italian meal I always know that Chianti will be a good match. The bonus is that when we make our traditional toast, we are immediately transported back to Tuscany, with its rolling hills, vine-covered slopes, twisty roads and magical light. It’s pretty good value for $12 to $20.
Lorne Eckersley is the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance.