Miso-glazed cabbage and orange wine

The way things are looking I don’t imagine there will be many standout matches of the week over the forthcoming months given that I’m out and about much less than normal. But this one, from Trivet in Bermondsey last week is truly excellent.

I went there for a (very) late lunch after a nearby tasting and sat at the bar where they do an all day menu that’s really quite serious. Proper food not just snacks of which one dish was this incredibly clever miso-glazed cabbage on skewers, cut to look like a kebab. It really was insanely delicious - sweet, savoury, deeply umami - and went perfectly with a gorgeously aromatic glass of Greek orange wine - the 2016 Domaine Tatsis Malagouzia. (There were also some very good grilled chicken wings alongside with which it also rubbed along happily.)

Trivet is run by two Heston Blumenthal alumni, chef Jonny Lake and sommelier Isa Bal who worked together at Fat Duck. While we can still get to restaurants in London I really suggest you go there - the wine list is also amazing. It’s at 36 Snowsfields, just near London Bridge.

Pizzocheri and Valtellina

A slightly obscure pairing this week from the Lombardy region of Italy, the focus for an absolutely brilliant pop-up supper I went to at Wild Artichokes in Kingsbridge last Friday.

It was based on authentic recipes that had been painstakingly researched and assembled by food writer Christine Smallwood in her brilliant book An Appetite for Lombardy and cooked by Jane Baxter, ex River Café, former head chef of the nearby Riverford Kitchen and, most recently, author of Happy Salads.

Practically everything was different from the dishes you’d find in a restaurant. The courgette fritters for example, contained crushed amaretti and this ribsticking dish of buckwheat pasta, potato, cabbage and cheese is not one I’d ever come across before.

Largely because of the cabbage it paired perfectly with a light Valtellina red from the same region, one of those Italian reds that behaves like a white wine with food. Christine had brought along a bottle of Mamete Prevostini Santa Rita, Rosso di Valtellina which is 100% nebbiolo (known locally as Chiavennasca) and which costs around £18 from Kingsbridge Wine Rooms and online from Food & Fine Wine.

The recipe, which comes from Anna Bertola of Trattoria Altavilla in Bianzone tells you how to make the pasta from scratch but Christine says you can buy it dried at a good Italian deli like Lina Stores in Soho. Sounds like the perfect dish for a dark, wet, end-of-October night.

Although Wild Artichokes is not a restaurant in the conventional sense it hosts regular lunches, dinners and special events so it’s well worth checking their website or getting on their mailing list if you’re staying in the South Devon area.

Glazed bacon ribs and Meursault

What do you pair with a classic Irish dish of bacon and cabbage? Guinness might the traditional answer but when the bacon is celebrated northern Ireland butcher Peter Hannan’s amazing French trimmed dry cured bacon rack, glazed and cooked on the barbecue and served with an outrageously creamy parsley sauce then something a little more extravagant is called for.

But Meursault? How does that work? Well pork goes at least as well with white wine as red but it’s really all about the sauce. Cream absolutely loves chardonnay and with a sauce of this richness a classy burgundy like the 2012 Vincent Sauvestre Meursault Clos des Tessons we drank with it* is the answer. It was just stunning.

Two other matches that worked well were a deliciously refreshing medium dry 4.5% Meadow Farm Irish craft cider and - more unexpectedly - a dark, exotic blend of nero d’avola and nerello mascalese from Cantina Cellaro in Sicily which had an unusual taste of cloves which were of course the link to the ham. Would any nero d’avola work as well? I’m not sure it would but it would certainly be worth a try.

*From Robb Brothers in Portadown

Boiled bacon and cabbage with Irish stout

With St Patrick’s Day falling on a Monday this year - and in Easter week into the bargain - many are expected to be celebrating this coming Saturday so here’s a reminder of just how great an Irish stout (Guinness or otherwise) is with that classic dish of boiled bacon and cabbage.

Salty foods in general work well with beer - salt takes the edge off its bitterness and together with cabbage, which also has its bitter notes, seems to transform a stout into a gorgeous, mellow, velvety partner for the dish. The stout also gives character to the pairing providing a tasty edge to what for some can be quite a bland combination.

Subscribers who fancy hosting a St Patrick’s Day supper may also like to be reminded that there’s a menu and recipes here.

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