meat sauce with pasta

[circa55]

I'm serving pasta with a rich tomato sauce and hot Italian sausage, meatballs, and bracciole.
What wine should I serve?

[tw]

I would maybe suggest like a zin or a Chianti.

[Scoop]

Teroldego, Benjamin, Teroldego (a lively Northern Italian red).

Scoop

[Thomas]

I have come to the conclusion that it is a losing battle to figure out what someone means by meat sauce, or rich tomato sauce, or even hot sausage. These things are subjective and the wine pairing is too.

But as a general statement I have said before and will say again--while it might make sense to others, I do not agree that heavy tomato sauce acidity is best paired with heavy wine acidity. So, I always suggest southern Italian wines with tomato sauce that sounds southern Italian in description--imagine that, the region's sauce and the region's wines!. Northern Italian tomato sauce is nothing like the south and it is more amenable to a northern wine pairing.

While this particular sauce might be northern (meat), that "rich" and "hot" is questionable.

[circa55]

thanks everyone....

foodie, since my relatives came from bari, we're southern italians, but we put meat in our sauce...can you name some southern varieties, please?

[Thomas]

Circa,

Then I assume you've got a sauce going that is more like a ragu--cooked long and thick. If so, seek Salice Salentino, Brindisi, Primitivo, and maybe Aglianico. The last is usually more expensive and a lot more tannic. As a back up for people who might want a lighter offering that would still do well, Montepulciano D'Abruzzo.

You should be able to find one or most of them in CT. I don't usually give producer names because not all producers are available everywhere, so tlak with the retailer about some of those wines. The retailer might even have a suggestion.

Incidentally, my father was northern and my mother southern Italian--which is something that ain't supposed to happen. Since my mother did the cooking, we ate mainly southern style foods with a nod toward the north every so often. She made the best meatballs I have ever tasted (next to mine, of course [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/wink.gif[/img] )

[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 12-23-2005).]

[circa55]

thx, foodie!...oh, and my meatballs aren't bad either.