Damian

“You may have the universe if I may have Italy.” – Giuseppe Verdi

Of course you can pair any wine with Italian food if you want. However, a good rule of thumb is to pair Italian wines with Italian cuisine. To take it a step farther, it is even better to pair the wine with food from the same region. Now that’s truly having an authentic Italian dinner.

A Quick Italian Wine Cheat Sheet

Italian wines are known to be some of the best in the world (on par with Spain and France) with around 400 different grape varieties. Some regions in Italy were already producing wine back in the 2^nd Century B.C. making it one of the oldest wine producing countries in the world. You can just imagine the exceptional techniques discovered and honed over 2000 years!

The six most famous Italian wine regions include:

• Veneto (Northeastern Italy) – famous for producing more wine than the rest of Italy. We get Prosecco (sparkling wine), Soave (white wine), Valpolicella (red wines) from this thriving area.
• Marche and Abruzzo (center of Italy) are neighboring regions and are well known for their white Verdicchio and red Montepulciano grapes.
• The world-renowned Tuscany region produces internationally recognized wines including dry whites, full bodied red and sweet wines. This is the birthplace of Chianti!
• The Piedmont wine region is hot on the heels of Tuscany to try to claim the top spot in Italy. It produces the famous Barolo (red), Barbaresco and Moscato d’Asti (sparkling). This is “Italy’s Burgundy” with all of its small and diverse vineyards.
• Lombardy (northern Italy) is one of the largest wine regions in Italy producing two well-known sparkling wines – Franciacorta and Lambrusco. They also produce Soave, Bardolino and Valpolicella wines.
• The island of Sicily sports the famous Nero d’Avola wine and a great Syrah among their excellent wines.

But there are over twenty wine regions in total. The top three, known as the “killer B’s” –Barolo, Barbaresco and Brunello di Montalcino are highly sought after.

Now let’s look at the regional food and wine pairings.

 Chi non beve in compagnia o è un ladro o è una spia

 “People who do not drink with others are either thieves or spies.” (Italian Proverb)

Let’s start in Tuscany – my favorite.

You should pair Vino Nobile di Montepulciano or the “noble wine” with meats like grilled Chianina steaks, pork sausages, roasted lamb. The medium to full-bodied, high-acid red wine with aromas of dark cherries, dried porcini mushrooms, and roasted herbs also pair well with roasted wild mushrooms over polenta. Maybe a ragu of wild boar or a tagliatelle with black truffles and olive oil.

A glorious young Chianti can pair perfectly with Bistecca Fiorentina, Pasta Fagioli or the famous Chicken liver pate on toast. Chianti generally pairs well with tomato sauces so it’s also perfect for spaghetti bolognese, spaghetti and meatballs and lasagna. It also complements pizza, crostini topped with chicken livers or mushrooms, Salumi, pecorino cheese, braised veal (especially with mushrooms) and Tuscan style sausages and beans. Delicious!

When you ask Tuscan wine producers what pairs best with Brunello Di Montalcino they usually respond, “meat or game”. Obviously in the Tuscan style of cooking. You could drink it along with pot roast pheasant, lamb with rosemary, again with the most famous dish of all – Bistecca alla Fiorentina, Pappardelle with wild boar. Simple cheeses like aged pecorino or parmesan are ideal for this wine.

If you are drinking a coastal wine like Litorale Vermentino from the Tyyhenian Sea in Maremma (Tuscanny), you must pair it with fish!

If your palate prefers a Piedmont wine –your choice will probably be a Barolo, Barbatesco, Dolcetto or Nebbiolo. You could pair them nicely with:

• Tajarin or Plin (fresh-egg pasta) with ragù
• Bagna Cauda (savory hot dip)
• Barbera braised veal shank
• Aged salami with garlic and black pepper
• Chicken Tortelli in broth
• Anchovies in green sauce
• Brasato (beef braised in Barolo wine)
• and of course pizza.

If you are looking to eat and drink like you are visiting the Marche and Abruzzo regions, your medium bodied Montepulciano wines will go perfectly with:

• All pizza – they are super pizza friendly wines
• Beef Bolognese
• Brodetto fish soup
• Maccheroni alla chitarra with lamb ragu
• Crespelle (Italian Crepes)
• Meat or lamb with pecorino cheese and egg
• ’ndocca ’ndocca pork stew
• Ventricina – Pork sausage
• Soppressate and Mortadelle

If you want the taste of northern Italy’s Veneto, pair your Soave wines with:

• Grilled sea food
• Chicken or fish based pastas
• Baccalà (dried, salted codfish), red mullet, and cuttlefish.
• Scampi alla Veneziana (boiled shrimp served with a simple dressing of olive oil and lemon juice.)
• Scota de Cappe Caparossi (large clams cooked with lemon and pepper)
• Risi e Bisi (rice and peas)
• Pasta e Fagioi (pasta and beans)

“Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.” – Truman Capote

If you wish to eat in the Lombardian style with a glass of Bardolino you could try:

• Bresaola (air-dried salted beef)
• Bitto (exclusively alpine pasture cheese)
• Pavia’s Goose salami
• Perch risotto

Eating in the Sicilian style you’ll drink your Syrah or Nero d’Avola wine with:

• Prosciutto di parma (Marinated mushrooms)
• Carciofi (marinated artichoke hearts)
• Peperoni ripieni (baked yellow and red peppers)
• Polpette di melanzane (fried and braised eggplant fritters)
• Involtini di Pesce Spada (swordfish roll-ups stuffed with pine nuts, raisins, bread crumbs, and anchovies.)
• Spaghetti con Acciughe e Mollica Rossa (spaghetti with anchovy, fresh tomato sauce, and toasted breadcrumbs).
• Pasta con le Sarde (pasta with sardines
• Spaghetti con Verdure di Campo e Ricotta (Spaghetti with Wild Greens and Ricotta)
• Farsumagru (rolled steak, stuffed Sicilian style)
• Braciole alla Sicilian (veal cutlets)

When you choose to immerse yourself in Italian cuisine and its spectacular wines you can taste the flavors of the region and enjoy a truly authentic Italian experience. These are only a few suggestions of pairings by region. You can explore each of these enchanting regions, and “travel” to Italy on the flavors and aromas of the wines and dishes you choose to explore at home, or your favorite Italian restaurant. If you’re going to eat Italian, why not do it 100% like the Italian locals?

A tavola non si invecchia (You don’t age while seated for a meal.)

“An Italian meal is a lively sequence of sensations in which the crisp alternates with the soft and yielding, the pungent with the bland, the variable with the staple, the elaborate with the simple.”
– Marcella Hazan

When my Italian ancestors arrived in the U.S. between 1880-1924 (almost 4 million people) they brought with them a style of cooking that has bewitched the country ever since. Many of the “Italian” themed restaurants that we find today are often Italian “inspired” rather than truly authentic establishments that offer the real deal. There have been some compromises and a few of the traditional recipes have been modified over time due to the distance away from the source and the evolution of dishes based on availability of ingredients.

While I like to accommodate our customer’s palates and expectations there are a few myths about Italian cooking that I just have to dispel. I hear the following statements and then I hear my ancestors shouting loudly from their graves. It’s my duty to set the record straight where I can. Here goes…

 

Myth #1: The more pasta sauce, the better?

Wrong – it’s all about the pasta. Less is more! Less is better! Real Italian dishes are not drowning in sauce. There should be just enough sauce to coat the pasta – a ratio of about 1 ½ cups of delicious sauce to about 1 pound of pasta. For oil based sauces it’s about 1:1.

“Life is a combination of magic and pasta.”
– Federico Fellini

 

Myth #2: Pasta should be cooked and rinsed?

Don’t give me a heart attack! Never ever rinse the pasta. It will lose its starch, which adds flavor and slightly thickens the sauce. Just drain the pasta well in a colander. Place pasta back in the pot and add hot sauce to just coat the pasta. Place pasta on the serving platter and then top with a little more sauce. If you rinse your cooked pasta you say goodbye to the starch that helps to absorb the sauce. You’ve lost the clinginess of your pasta as well as its wonderful flavor. The only time it is okay to rinse pasta is if you are making a cold pasta salad.

“Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.”
–Sophia Loren

 

Myth #3: Just top boiled pasta, with sauce?

You shouldn’t just ladle a dollop of sauce on top of your plate of pasta and serve. Pasta must always be tossed with the sauce over the stove. Your sauce must be hot and ready when you add the sauce to the cooked pasta. If the sauce is cold, it will make the pasta absorb more water and become mushy. You want your pasta to be lightly coated with the sauce.

“In order to create a little bit of confidence, start cooking with pasta. Pasta is phenomenal. Once you’ve cooked pasta properly for the first time it becomes second nature”
– Gordon Ramsay

 

Myth #4: Garlic makes it Italian?

This could not be farther from the truth. Garlic is used used all over Italy but more prevalent in the south, but always used sparingly. It should only provide a subtle flavoring and should never overpower a dish. In Italian-American cooking, garlic gets used in excess and dominates the flavor of the dish and doesn’t allow the more delicate tastes to surface. If Italian cooks use garlic, they might take a whole clove, smash it and add it to some olive oil, heat it up to release a little flavor and then take the clove out so it won’t flood the flavor of the finished dish. I always put my garlic and olive oil in the pan cold and then bring the oil up to heat slowly so as not to burn the garlic. Garlic has also been linked to indigestion so Italians don’t like to have too much of it.

“And, most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath.”
– William Shakespeare
 

Myth #5: Italians don’t eat much seafood?

Well, that’s simply not true. Italy is a peninsula. The seafood is amazing! Almost every one of Italy’s 20 regions are situated along the Mediterranean coastline, so fresh fish is in abundance. You can purchase the catch of the day directly from the docks every morning and it’s inexpensive. Just remember if you want to eat truly authentically Italian, go easy on the cheese. The pairing of cheese and fish is frowned upon in Italy –If you ask for Parmigiano on your pasta with seafood you will either get a nasty glare or more often get a NO! You don’t want to overpower the delicate fish flavor with heavy, creamy cheeses. Essentially combining pasta and seafood is a mortal sin!

“The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you’re hungry again.”
– George Miller

 

Myth #6: Italians cook the same dishes all over Italy.

There isn’t actually a common popular Italian menu eaten all over the country. Italy has 20 regions that have their own regional specialties. These dishes are influenced by the local history and traditions. The choice of dishes is also dependent on the local and seasonal availability of different ingredients. Not only does each region cook differently, each town may have its own version of a dish or dishes not known to a town 30 kilometers away. There just isn’t a “unified” Italian cuisine. The regional dishes can be as different as recipes and dishes you would find between countries.

“‘Food for thought’ – a recipe is only a theme, which an intelligent cook can play each time with variation.”
– Jehane Benoit

 

I can talk all day about my favorite passion –Italian cooking from my specific ancestral region. I am always ready to share the wisdom my mother passed on to me. “Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.”

People always ask me what the secret is to running a successful restaurant. After so many years in the business, many of the smaller elements are so seamless and well executed that I forget they are actually the building blocks and strength of my business. Running a restaurant is hard work; there are no short-cuts, you have to put in the hours.  However, there are a few things that I have learned over the years that I think are the reasons for our continued growth.

 

For me, its all about attention to detail

There are so many things happening all at once that you have to be on top of everything all the time. If one area is not functioning optimally the whole operation can come to a grinding halt. If your dishwasher goes on the blink and you are running out of plates and cutlery you’re in seriously hot water. You want to make sure that you have systems in place that keep the whole “machine” turning seamlessly. There must be flow in the space. There shouldn’t be an area in your restaurant that creates a bottleneck or seems to use up unnecessary time. The choices you make for the way the restaurant operates must make sense to the people who have to navigate it and create magic within it.

That means I am always open to suggestions from employees who have great ideas about how to streamline a process or alleviate a pain point. Their advice has made everyone’s lives easier at the end of the day.

 

As a restaurant owner you always have to be on your A game

You can never drop the ball because word of mouth can make or break you. Every customer that chooses to dine with you must walk away having an unforgettable experience. You wear many hats when you run a restaurant; You have to know every part of your business completely so you can always ensure that the quality of the food is remarkable and that the service is exceptional. You have a hand in creating the menu and bar list. Make sure that the front of the house is functioning in high gear. Then there is all of the behind the scenes elements that includes everything from banking to bookkeeping, HR to payroll, insurance and utilities. You name it –you must be on top of it all.

You have to be disciplined and organized. I think the biggest strength you can have for this industry is the ability to work under pressure. I think that in times of high volume and high stress, great communication and an excellent streamlined structure is going to see you through to the end of the evening with ease. I think we do the basics very well.

 

You have to go the extra mile for your customers

It sounds like that is what you are supposed to say if you are in a customer service industry but I know it to be the bedrock of my business. I want to build enduring relationships with the people who have chosen to eat in my “home”. They are my lifeblood. They are my first thought. My motto is, “Yes, is the answer, what is the question?” I remember many years ago when smoking was still allowed indoors, one of my regulars asked if he could bum a smoke. I actually ran across the road to the convenience store and got a pack of cigarettes just for him. He’s still a customer. Every happy customer is a walking billboard promoting your business. It’s all about consistency. You want people to experience a high standard of excellence every single time they dine with you. It’s difficult sometimes, but never impossible.

 

I would not be able to run my restaurants on my own

My employees are the force that fuels my business. You have to take exceptionally good care of your people and they will take care of your customers. Your staff are your ambassadors and representatives of your restaurant both on duty and off. If you treat them well and with respect, they will do the same for your patrons. This means that you also have to employ the best people at the outset to represent you. I find the best chef, the best waiters, the best managers and I get the best business growth. It’s not always easy to find the right people who are the right fit for your workplace culture. But when you find people who create a strong team, hold on to them for dear life. Keep training them, promoting them, engaging them. This time and money investment keeps your doors open because they share the same passion to see the restaurant succeed.

 

I always buy and provide the best ingredients, even if it costs a little more

Customers know the difference between great ingredients and average ingredients. Don’t be cheap – quality always costs a little more. We make everything from scratch. There are no microwaves in my kitchens. I like to create signature Italian dishes but also have my staple recipes I collected from my grandmother and mother. I am always about quality and authenticity.

 

I always choose the best possible space for my restaurants even if it costs a little more per square foot

Location, location, location. You want a space preferably in a well-traveled area. You want to make it easy for people to find you. I like to make sure my signage is really visible. A parking lot or parking garage close to your restaurant is also great. You also don’t want to be sharing the same street as too many restaurants as you might be constantly competing for customers. I spend money to make the inside and outside beautiful with authentic Italian décor. Carrabba’s was one of the first restaurants that had an open kitchen.

 

I never forget where I’ve come from

I remember this one night the waiters were not following the right process of putting dirty dishes away to help the dishwasher so I went to the back of the kitchen and washed dishes with my dishwasher. You can always jump in to assist when things get tough. Don’t get into believing all of the hype that people say about your restaurant. Don’t let all of the great reviews go to your head. I always try to remember that tonight we will start all over again trying to make sure you have an awesome meal out with family or friends.