by Patchen Markell » Mon Mar 14, 2016 12:09 pm
Yesterday, the best-looking thing at the fish counter was a gorgeous Spanish mackerel. I floured and fried half of it and put it in vinegar with a sauté of sweet onions, red bell peppers, banana peppers, Calabrian peppers, fennel, and eggplant; we'll have the resulting "sgombri in saor" or "verat en escabetx" or whatever you want to call it tonight, with plain potatoes to soak up the sauce. The other half of the fish got sliced into faux "sardines" for a variant of Sicilian "pasta con le sarde," for which we needed, naturally, something Sicilian to drink. The only thing we had at hand was a Frank Cornelissen Vino Rosato "Susucaru," no. 6, which I figured would work well... depending on what strange wonders had developed in this particular bottle. Warily, I took the occasion to go shopping for an assortment of other Sicilians, all whites, and we opened a Cantina Benanti 2010 Etna Bianco Superiore, Pietramarina alongside the Susucaru. The Pietramarina was gorgeous: clean, round tart-apple fruit with lemon and grapefruit peel and an intense salinity and minerality. Rich, but so structured that the richness comes out as length rather than breadth, as if the flavor were being extruded through an acid-cut stone die. The Susucaru was the best bottle I've had so far, cleaner and brighter than the last one: nose of watermelon, peach, and flowers, but it somehow also smells as dry as it proves to be, with the added austerity of a slightly bitter fruit-skin finish. Very slight prickliness from the fizz, but not much. Both went well with the pasta: I think Andrea slightly preferred the pairing with the Benanti while I slightly preferred the Cornelissen. We'll have the rest of each bottle tonight.
cheers, Patchen
