An amazing wine and vegetarian pairing

It’s time to come clean and tell you all about a little something happening in our world.

Erin is detoxing.

No not from alcoholism, but from a very fun summer.  She actually detoxes quite frequently – in January, in the spring and once again in the fall.  Now is such a time.

So why are we telling you this?

Well, it means the recipes we’ll be sharing over the next few weeks are going to be vegan and gluten free!

Wait! Don’t unsubscribe from our newsletter or stop your RSS feed, we promise, this will be painless — even delicious — and because we’re The Wine Sisters, wine pairings for these delicious, clean eating treats will abound.

So let’s start with one of Erin’s favourite vegan recipes: vegan “bolognese.”  Made with standard mirepoix base of a true bolognese, but replacing the ground beef & pork for hearty mushrooms, sundried tomatoes and black olives, we swear you really, truly, wouldn’t know the meat has been left out. Cross our hearts.

And because the ingredients are flavours that can easily be found in a Chianti Classico, guess what we’ve served with it? Oh, you are smart. Chianti Classico! (except for Erin who is currently on the wagon).

You can read all about our thoughts on Chianti Classico here, but in summary, its high acidity and firm tannins make it ideal for meat-and-tomato dishes like chicken cacciatore, meat ragus, and, of course, pizza.  But its savoury flavours of wild herbs, olives, cured meat and tomatoes, means it  also works really well with heartier vegetarian fare like eggplant parmesan, porcini mushroom risotto, and vegetable pasta sauces.

For this dinner, we chose the Fattoria Le Fonti Chianti Classico that we listed in our wine recommendations this month; it has considerable complexity of bay leaf, cured meat, red cherry, black licorice and sundried tomatoes, black olives and spice.  And for only $20 in Vintages, it was certainly worth picking up a few bottles.

As for the “bolognese,” this sauce has made three appearances on our dinner tables so far; not only is it delicious and soul-warming on a blustery fall day, omitting the meat takes the bill down considerably,  and best of all everyone gobbled down their veggies without even knowing it.

Vegetarian “Bolognese”

Serves 4 (about four ladles of sauce total)

Ingredients

• 28 grams dried porcini mushrooms
• 28 grams sun dried tomatoes
• 2 cups boiling water, divided
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 large shallots, diced
• 1 medium carrot, diced
• 2 large celery ribs, diced
• 4 medium cloves garlic, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped fine
• 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped fine
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1/2 Tbsp hot pepper paste (optional)
• 1/2 c. tomato puree
• 2 Tbsp fresh rosemary, finely diced
• 1/2 cup black, sundried olives, pitted and chopped fine

Method:

1. Place the tomatoes and mushrooms separately into two bowls.  Add one cup of boiling water to each, set aside.
2. Heat a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the olive oil.
3. When oil is hot, add in shallots, cooking for a minute, then follow with celery, carrots, red pepper and yellow pepper allowing a minute between each.
4. Add in garlic last and allow to cook for another minute or two to let flavours develop.
5. Deglaze with red wine, stirring to get any brown bits off the bottom of the pot.
6. Drain tomatoes and mushrooms separately, reserving liquid of each.  Run mushroom stock through a coffee filter to ride liquid of grit and sediment.
7. Roughly chop mushrooms and tomatoes and add to pot.
8. Add in half the tomato stock and stir to combine.
9. Add in rosemary and olives.
10. When the liquid has reduced by about half, add in the mushroom stock a little but at a time until each bit absorbs and the sauce is thick.
11. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve over pasta.