Aubergine parmigiana with Nero d’Avola

I’d already flagged up southern Italian red wines as a good pairing for aubergine (or eggplant) but it was good to be reminded just what a great match nero d'avola can be, especially with aubergine parmigiana

If you’re not familiar with the dish it’s a fabulous baked dish of fried aubergines layered with passata (tomato sauce) and cheese (this is Guardian writer’s Felicity Cloake’s ‘perfect’ version based on testing a number of different recipes)

The one we had at Planeta’s Buonivini estate in Noto was based, I think, on the one in their cookbook Sicilia which was compiled by Elisia Menduni from family recipes belonging to founder Diego Planeta’s two sisters Anna Maria and Carolina and was served at the ambient temperature of a warm July evening rather than hot.

We drank three vintages of their flagship Santa Cecilia wine which is made from Nero d’Avola with it - the 2005, 2007 and 2009 of which I enjoyed the 2007 most. It’s an elegant wine you wouldn’t necessarily expect to go with such a rustic dish but it set off the wine to perfection.

It was also, of course, a case of the right dish, in the right place at the right time.

You can buy the current 2011 vintage of Santa Cecilia from Great Western Wine for £23.50. (They're also selling the basic but very enjoyable Planeta Segreta Rosso 2014 for £8.76 at the time of writing.)

Other wine matches for aubergines/eggplant

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

Braised saltmarsh lamb at Langford Fivehead

I’ve just had a sneak preview of a very lush new B & B Langford Fivehead which opens next week (March 1st) in the Somerset Levels just outside Taunton. The building dates back to 1453 and is owned and run by former BBC Good Food editor Orlando Murrin and his partner Peter Steggall

At weekends they will also be providing supper in their splendidly baronial candlelit dining room (right). Following on from the pattern they established at their previous restaurant with rooms Le Manoir de Reynaudes in south-west France, Orlando cooks a no choice menu, country-house style, and Peter sources and pairs the wines.

This was my favourite of the matches though all were good. The meat was shoulder and leg of hogget which is year-old lamb, sourced from the Quantocks near the Somerset coast, slowly braised and served with mash and spiced Russian kale (a particularly hardy variety - just as well this winter.) It had a gorgeous, slightly gamey flavour which was perfectly offset by a dark, dusky Sicilian red Azienda Agricola Ceuso 2005, a blend of Nero d’Avola, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

I was also impressed how well the wine went with a selection of cheeses including King’s Favourite a washed-rind cheese from Dorset producer Cranborne Chase and a Welsh blue called Perl Las from Caws Cenarth - not always easy with a red.

We started with a lovely salad of smoked eel, duck egg and hazelnuts which Peter paired with a Domaine Mas Saint Laurent Picpoul de Pinet but then I know I’m always banging on about smoked eel . . .

*Incidentally - and nothing to do with food and wine matching - the house has an Aeolian harp, a box strung with harp strings that resonate in the wind and emit curious and mystical sounds. Worth going for that alone . . .

I stayed at Langford Fivehead as Orlando and Peter’s guest. Photograph by Steve Dalton.