While we suffer through extreme heat and humidity in the waning days of summer, I generally prefer to sip light, white wine with my meals. Chilled sauvignon blanc, riesling, unoaked chardonnay and pinot grigio top the list of wines I choose to accompany with many of my summertime dishes. But I adamantly refuse to eliminate red wines from my list of summer sippers just because Mother Nature is in a bad mood.
However, I do select less intense reds because they are better companions to more casual, picnic or warm weather meals. And, importantly, I always chill my summer reds in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before opening them. Today, I’ll provide you with the recipes for two easy-to-make summertime meals and suggest the perfect red wines with which to pair them.
Calabrian Fried Peppers and Valpolicella
This dish brings back fond memories of my Calabrian grandmother. I can see her lovingly frying peppers just picked from her garden. I don’t have a garden, but I get my peppers from local farmers who sell them at the Capitol Market in Charleston. In addition to yellow, red and green bell peppers, I add Hungarian (hot) wax peppers which approximate the heat of a jalapeno. The beauty of this recipe is that you can adjust it to accommodate your tolerance for spiciness by limiting or omitting the hot peppers.
Preparation
Slice any combination of peppers into equal length strips. My usual mix is two each red and yellow bell peppers, one green bell and two Hungarian hots. To the mix, add one whole onion sliced into one-third inch rings, three large cloves of chopped garlic and two tablespoons each of chopped fresh basil. In a cast iron skillet or frying pan, heat three ounces of olive oil, and then sauté’ the pepper mixture on medium heat, turning the ingredients frequently to prevent scorching.
During cooking, salt the mixture to taste and liberally sprinkle freshly ground black peppercorns. The dish is ready to eat when the veggies are supple and limber. Plate the peppers and top them with more chopped basil. These fried peppers can serve as a main course or as a spicy accompaniment to any meat or fish entrée. And the peppers make a sensational sandwich when heaped on slices of baguette or ciabatta loaves, like the tasty ones baked at Charleston Bread.
Calbrian Fried Peppers
Valpolicella, located in Italy’s Veneto region, is a lovely accompaniment to the dish. Produced from a combination of relatively obscure grapes (corvina, rondinalla and molinara), this red is a wine full of ripe cherry flavors and provides a delicious, refreshing and thirst-quenching paring for this spicy Calabrian pepper dish. Try these wines: 2022 Allegrini Valpolicella Classico ($20) and 2020 Zenato Valpolicella Classico Superiore ($18).
Barbecue Chicken Thighs and Rioja
Barbecue means different things to different people. For some, it’s a verb as in: “I’m going to barbecue some hamburgers.” For others, barbecue is a noun and usually refers to a type of cooked pork or beef that is chopped, immersed in various sauces and served on a bun. To me, barbecue means a style of roasting various cuts of meat, seafood or vegetables on the grill. One of my favorites is dry-rubbed, barbecued chicken thighs.
Preparation
Purchase a package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs and rub them with a simple mixture of two parts brown sugar, to one part each of kosher salt and smoked paprika. Combine the ingredients and rub them all over the thighs about 15 minutes before placing them on your gas or charcoal grill.
Pair these sweet and savory thighs with Rioja – a red wine from northern Spain. Rioja (pronounced Ree-Owe-Hah) is made from tempranillo, a grape that features spicy, bright, red fruit flavors which marry seamlessly with the chicken thighs. I suggest you pair the dish with 2019 Marques De Riscal Rioja Reserva($24) or 2020 Marques De Caceres Rioja Crianza ($17).
John Brown is also a novelist. His two books – Augie’s War and Augie’s World – are available online and in bookstores around the state. The third book in the Augie Trilogy- Augie’s Wine – will be released later this year. You can find out more about his novels, and review all of his archived Vines & Vittles columns at wordsbyjohnbrown.com