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Wine Pairing: Rosé and Pasta Salad

Welcome back to the Ultra Wine Racks blog! We regularly bring you winery profiles, the latest wine news, and wine and food pairings. Today it’s time for another delicious wine pairing: rosé and pasta salad.

Rosé is hot right now. Rosé wine from the Provence region of France is the hottest. It can sometimes be challenging to pair foods with this type of wine, but it can be a rewarding experience. Today we’re serving up Chateau Montaud Côtes de Provence rosé and Everything-But-the-Kitchen-Sink pasta salad. (Courtesy of Half-Baked Harvest.)

 

THE RECIPE:

Millions of pasta salad recipes exist on the web. No matter what ingredients you like and dislike, there’s probably a pasta salad recipe that’s perfect for you. Generally, they’re easy, convenient, healthy dishes. They’re also quick to make and simple to throw together. Tieghan Gerard, the genius food blogger and photographer behind Half-Baked Harvest, describes her “Everything But the Kitchen Sink Pasta Salad” as a “simple mix of pesto, veggies, pasta, and cheese.” If you have some sauces, vegetables, and cheeses beginning to accumulate in your refrigerator, this might be the perfect recipe for you. Tieghan’s basic version of the salad uses the following ingredients. But you can use any ingredients you have on hand.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb short-cut pasta
  • 3/4 cup store-bought pesto (or chunky basil pesto)
  • 2 tablespoons sun-dried tomato pesto or 1/2 cup packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained
  • juice from 1 lemon
  • 1/2 green or kalamata olives
  • 2 red bell peppers (sliced)
  • 2 ears grilled corn (kernels removed)
  • 1 ripe nectarine or peach (sliced)
  • 1 cup cherry or heirloom tomatoes (halved)
  • 8-12 oz cheddar cheese (cubed)
  • 6-8 oz mozzarella cheese (cubed or in balls)
  • olive oil (for dressing)
  • 1/2 cup sunflower seeds (toasted)
  • 1 cup fresh sprouts
  • smoked salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper to taste

 

Instructions

In a large pot, bring salted water to boil. Add pasta and boil until al dente. Drain and set aside. In a large bowl, combine pestos, lemon juice, olives, peppers, corn, fruit, cheese, and pinches of salt, pepper, and red pepper. Add pasta and drizzle with olive oil. Toss to combine. Top with sunflower seeds and sprouts. Serve immediately.

View full recipe here: https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/everything-but-the-kitchen-sink-pasta-salad/

 

THE WINE:

Rosé is known as rosado in Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries, and rosato in Italy. Its characteristic hue is a result of the wine picking up some color from the grape skins during fermentation. (But not enough color to become a fully red wine.) The color of this type of wine can range from orange to almost purple.

Rosé comes in a bewildering number of varieties. Some rosé wines are sweet, some are not. Some are sparkling, some semi-sparkling, some “still.” Many different types of grapes can be used to make rosé. Its production methods are so simple that it may be one of the oldest types of wine.

rose wine provence food pairing ultra wine racks

Chateau Montaud Côtes de Provence rosé is produced by Chateau Montaud Vignobles Ravel in the region of Provence in southeast France. This is a very old winemaking region. Winemakers have produced wine in Provence for 2,600 years. Currently, rosé accounts for more than half of the region’s wine production. The Côtes de Provence AOC (appellation d’origine contrôlée, or “protected designation of origin”) is one of the largest officially recognized wine-producing areas of Provence.

Chateau Montaud Côtes de Provence costs around $11-12. It earned a score of 85 from Wine Enthusiast. It is described as having a soft texture, with flavors of carmelized raspberry and low alcohol content. Roger Voss of Wine Enthusiast describes it as being “light and fruity…with plenty of acidity to keep it all very crisp.”

 

WHY THIS WINE PAIRS WITH THIS RECIPE:

Low alcohol content? Crisp acidity? Fruity flavors? Soft texture, perfect for pairing with food? Chateau Montaud checks all the boxes. Lighter fare such as salad deserves a lighter wine, and Chateau Montaud fits the bill perfectly, not too light or too heavy. Its fruity flavors help to offset the pesto and olive oil. The acidity, as it always does, helps to cleanse the palate between each bite.

There are many different flavors warring for control of a pasta salad, and Everything But the Kitchen Sink pasta salad is no different. Grilled corn, smoked salt, toasted sunflower seeds, tomatoes, sugary fruits, cheeses, olives, and peppers: it’s a smorgasbord of flavor! For this reason, we believe that a slightly sweet wine with fruity overtones would be perfect to pair with this dish.

As always, we invite you to add your own pairing to the mix! If you have a wine you like to drink when you make pasta salad, let us know in the comments section. Don’t forget to check out our other wine-food pairings on our blog. We’ll have another pairing coming up in three weeks. In the meantime, swing by our website and check out our wine racking solutions.

Happy sipping!

 

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