Dinner 1 - Vegetarian Bolognese with a Light and Full Bodied Red Wine

Today's Dinner: Vegetarian Bolognese with Gluten-Free Penne (recipe for sauce here)
Source: Cooking Light, November 2009

Wine 1: La Loggia Barbera D'Alba (2008) - light-bodied red from Piedmont, Italy
Wine 2: Les Caves Joseph Bordeaux (2007) - full-bodied red from France

We chose this recipe because the sauce is supposed to taste hearty and meaty thanks to the umami ingredients in it - parmiggiano-reggiano and mushrooms. I wanted Jenna, the non-vegetarian, to have a nice 'meaty' dish to eat!

Will the light bodied red be be overpowered or will the dish stand up to the full bodied red that goes with the traditional meat dish this one is based on?

Morgan: The sauce was supposed to have umami flavors from mushrooms (both fresh cremini and dried ground-up porcinis) and parmiggiano-reggiano cheese - I simmered the sauce for 40 minutes with the cheese rind. Unfortunately the flavors didn't really come through in this sauce; I was a little disappointed. After a couple of bites my palate was screaming out for some wine! I was hoping wine would intensify the flavors in the dish.

The first wine, the Barbera d'Asti, didn't help much. The wine felt rough in my mouth, and no strong flavors or aromas came through. I think I read somewhere that this is a table wine in the Piedmont region of Italy, and that makes sense - I couldn't imagine this wine clashing with many dishes. With the rough tannins coming through in this wine, I could see why it would turn some people off.

The second wine, the Bordeaux, was a LOT smoother. The aroma and flavor was grapey, and it was deep purple in color whereas the Barbera was more red-purple in color. It felt robust and velvety in my mouth - instead of attacking my tongue, it seemed to roll along my palate. And, happily, it let the flavors in the dish loosen up a little bit! The tanginess of the tomato sauce, the sweetness of the vegetables, and the earthiness of the mushrooms really came forward when I ate this dish with the Bordeaux.


Jenna: Well, not gonna lie, I was a bit nervous at all the veggies in the sauce. I told her not to tell me what they were until I had already eaten it. So, tonight was a success in that I am not going home hungry. This meal was definitely good enough to eat, but it was not super flavorful, a fact which Morgan seconded. I feel like meat would have added the flavor that it lacked, but Morgan swears it could be better and still vegetarian. So, I am not convinved vegetarian is the way to go because it seemed less enjoyable than a normal meal, but I could survive on this, which is not true of many vegetarian meals.

The first, light bodied wine, made my tongue feel kind of fuzzy when I drank it. I couldn't smell anything besides the alcohol, and when I tasted it, all I tasted was fuzz. Then I took a bite of the bolognese, and it was pretty much the same. The wine didn't do anything for the food, and I wasn't able to distinguish anything but alcohol from the flavor.

The second, fuller bodied wine, did not make my mouth feel fuzzy at all, but it was also much stronger. I couldn't tell what it was that was stronger, but I didn't like it at all. Surprisingly, after the wine, the food tasted better, more flavorful. There wasn't anything I could put my finger on, but it was just better tasting. I could only have two sips of wine because it was really gross, but I did at least notice a difference in the food and a difference between the wines.
I think overall, this was a vegetarian meal I could get behind. I would have preferred typical bolognese, but I was able to eat the meal. I couldn't drink the wines, but I did notice slight differences. I am not yet a convert, but I can at least see how people survive being vegetarians. Until next week!

Winner: The Bordeaux for both of us, because it made the food taste better!