Fork and Gobble It: Umami City

Fridays on the BottleBlog will feature a food-related article, wine pairing, or travelogue. Today, Wine Manager Mark Ricca talks about a little-known fifth sense, called umami.

So last week I finished up by talking about the fifth taste, Umami, and red wine and fish dishes. I took that to the extreme last night when I prepared a stir-fry as a base for grilled salmon. Umami is best described as a savory, meaty, rich flavor that coats the tongue. Foods that are rich in Umami are mushrooms, vegetables, cured meats, and fish among others. My stir-fry contained Shiitake mushrooms, Savoy cabbage, Smoked Trout, onion, and shoyu or soy sauce.

Just like I said last week, my idea of the perfect wine to accompany these flavors is Pinot Noir. Last night it happened to be the Montinore Estate Pinot Noir 2008. When you put a wine like this together with these flavors, you get that mouth magic that happens when the right wine hits the right foods.

Rudy Marchesi, owner and winemaker at Montinore in Oregon's Willamette Valley, practices biodynamic farming and his wines are some of the most Burgundian I have ever tasted. The 2008 Estate Pinot Noir smacks your palate with bright red fruit, and follows with flavors of earth, and meat and smoke, in a very elegant style that compliments and doesn't overwhelm. But I offer this caveat; On its own the very thing that makes this wine wonderful, its delicious bright fruit and acidity, have nothing to play with and therefore might disappoint you. Very often I hear complaints from people who describe a wine they didn't like as tart or "like vinegar." Lots of times I have to believe that there was nothing being consumed with the wine. If you're not aware that this is what the wine is supposed to taste like, you might consider it flawed.

Take for another example a simple pasta dish I prepared last week, Spaghetti with Eggplant, Onion, and Tomato finished with grated Ricotta Salata cheese. All those vegetable and tomato flavors contain Umami. They also have acidity of their own which would be well met with a high acid wine. That wine we drank that night was a Barbera d'Alba 2008 from Dante Rivetti. Again, not a wine I would recommend drinking as a cocktail. Barbera is a great food wine with very high natural acidity. Talk about your great pizza wines! Why stop at pizza though? This very cool little wine has cherry fruit and tobacco notes that are all held together with a zippy acidic backbone. Put it down in front of some dried sausage or Pecorino Romano cheese and expect a WoW moment.

That pasta was a natural match for that wine.

Spaghetti with Roasted Eggplant, Onion and Tomato

-2 small eggplants diced large (1/2”) about 2 cups

Toss the eggplant with olive oil and a little salt, coat it well and put it on a sheet pan. Place it into a 350F oven for about 15 ~ 20 minutes until it is well browned.

-4 cloves of garlic, minced
-1 small spanish or sweet white onion diced small
-½ cup of good quality olive oil
-1 pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

Sweat the onion and garlic in a deep saute pan (5qt) with the pepper flakes in the olive oil and season lightly with salt. When they are translucent and fragrant add:

-1 28 oz can of diced plum tomatoes, drained

Continue to cook the vegetables over a medium heat.

Boil 1 pound of spaghetti for 7 minutes, reserve 3 cups of the pasta water, drain the pasta and add it to the saute' pan.

Add the roasted eggplant to the pan. Add in half the reserved pasta water and turn the heat up high shaking and stirring the pan constantly. When the oil and water have reduced to a consistency like a sauce, coating the pasta and vegetables add:

-½ cup fresh basil leaves torn into strips

If necessary, adjust with more pasta water or oil, check the seasoning and plate the pasta garnishing with grated Ricotta Salata cheese.

After experiencing how those wines interplay with foods like these, you just don't think of drinking them without companionship.