Brunello for a Non-Meat Eater?

I am looking for a little help in making a birthday dinner for my wife. She is a non-meat eater (i.e. She eats fish & poultry, but no beef or pork). I have a bottle of Brunello that we got while on our honeymoon in Italy & wanted to serve it with dinner, but all the recipes I find online for Brunello say to serve it with steak, pork or lamb. I am sure that there are some good pairings using pasta with red sauce and chicken, but I wanted to make something a little more elaborate than chicken parm. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,
Tim

It's not a tomato-sauce kind of wine. Think bold and earthy- polenta with wild mushrooms would be high on my list. If this were a REALLY special bottle, I'd save it until November when white truffles are available, then splurge and do a terrina fonduta Albese (basically, a poached egg over a fonduta sauce with sliced truffles on top).

[Jenise]

Tim, if you've got a good wine, it will show well with any food that doesn't outright offend it, like something in a sweet orange butter sauce, say. In other words, no need to worry about a carnivore's idea of a perfect wine-food match because, for starters, the whole concept of a perfect match is rather overrated. Many, many vegetarian dishes should do quite well, especially if enriched with butter or cheese. Stuart's suggestion of a polenta topped with sauteed wild mushrooms (nothing more than butter and fresh herbs like rosemary and thyme to make that one go, then dusted with some grated parmesan) is spot-on. A really cool homemade mac'n'cheese enhanced with parmesan for sharpness and tang would be great too. You could take that into the luxury range (since it's for her birthday) by adding pieces of artichoke or, again, mushrooms. Staying with the Italian theme, what about a risotto? There are lots of beautiful directions to take a great risotto, it only need be different from "the usual", whatever that is at your house, to make it stand out. How about zucchini fritters (slices of zucchini pan-fried in an egg batter) served with a leek and lemon risotto? Or instead of the zucchini, how about nidi di erbrucce, literally "green nests" in which you'd use fresh blanched spinach leaves wound in a circle to create a nest into which you would break an egg and then bake.

You said she does eat chicken and fish. There are lots of opportunities there--chicken picata, chicken marsala, or chicken saltimbocca without the proscuitto, that is thin pieces of pounded chicken breast layered with cheese and fresh sage leaves.

Fish and red wine? It can be done. One Italian way would be a fritelle--cooked white fish blended with parsley, garlic, mashed potatoes and egg, formed into little cakes and pan fried in a bit of olive oil.

And then there's taleggio cheese, fungally and earthy, and a great match for a good brunello. How about pastries made from puff pastry rolled out with parmesan cheese and filled with sauteed raddichio and taleggio cheese? They're absolutely to die for, and you can make it very luxurious with little slices of canned black truffle. They don't have the flavor of fresh, but you will never fail to raise the excitement level when you announce your "raddichio and truffle tart" to a guest. Serve them alone, or with a pile of mache on the side lightly drizzled with truffle oil and finished with a flakey sea salt.

Anyway, there are a lot of good options for pairing with both your brunello and your good intentions. Recipes for anything described above are available just for the asking.

Jenise, I don't post much - read a lot... and all I've got to say is, damn! This post has REALLY made me hungry.

Good question, great answer.

Fred