Wine for cooking

[Thomas]

Donovan,

The idea behind using a sweeter wine is so you don't have to add sugar to the sauce. Think about it: you add sugar to cut the acidity; dry red wine hardly helps to do that. Why not add a wine that gives both wine flavor and offsets the acidity? In fact, when you add Amarone, which is a good addition, you are adding sweetness as well as alcohol (which is also sweet).

Until I came upon the concept, I used to add red wine and honey to tomato sauce, so I know what you mean. But I hold to my position, which I have only recently come to--and I have not had one complaint from people who eat my tomato sauce; quite the contrary... [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]

Just last night, I pounded some sliced squid (calamare) cooked it in a spicy hot tomato sauce and ladled it over cavatelli--it all benefited greatly from the dose of Madiera I used.




[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 09-02-2005).]