Pizza and Wine

[mrdutton]

Okay what would you suggest for a wine with the following:

Poached pear & gorgonzola pizza served with mixed spring greens with a oil and vinegar dressing and bits of gorgonzola cheese.

[hotwine]

Hi, Mike, welcome back!

Will there be tomato sauce on the pizza? If so, I'd choose a Barbera d'Alba. If not, I be clueless.

[mrdutton]

No tomato sauce on the Pizza. There was a base of melted mozzarella cheese along with some carmelized onions. The onions and the pears were sweet and the gorganzola a nice match to offset the sweetness.

I tried two different wines with this combination which I'll report on later (one went nicely the other bombed). I just wanted to get some ideas from the board on possible suggestions before I reported back on what I drank.

[Thomas]

Tocai Friuliano
or maybe
Trebbiano di Lugana

Can't get them in Va. Try Pinot Bianco.

[sedhed]

My friends from NY, NJ and Chicago says; Eh, that's not piza! My Canadien friends Say: That's not piza, eh.
Just noticed I can't spell pizza.

[This message has been edited by sedhed (edited 01-29-2004).]

[mrdutton]

Thanks, foodie. Those sound like pretty good suggestions. Unfortunately non of those wines were on the list at the restaurant where I had this dish.

I am not sure I would call it pizza either, but it was tastey. The folks at CPK call it pizza on their menu so that is how I ordered it. It was nice to see they had a brick oven; disappointing that it was gas fired.

[Thomas]

Yeah, Elvis Presley used to eat something called barbecue pizza (I think it had chicken wings or baby backs sticking out of it). It was prepared in a place that called itself an italian restaurant.

Now that's not pizza!

[mrdutton]

I ate this dish at a place called California Pizza Kitchen.

Frankly, the thought of eating poached pears with Gorgonzola cheese caught my attention. I thought it would, potentially, be a very palate pleasing combination.

Turns out it was very pleasing to my palate.

But I was not sure what I wanted for a wine. Although the CPK staff is supposed to be well trained, my server was no great help.

Anyway I chose a glass of Sauvignon Blanc from their limited menu. The wine travelled nicely down my gullet with the pears and small bits of the cheese. It also held up with the salad of spring greens and oil and vinegar vinaigrette. But it did not do very well with the larger chunks of cheese.

I asked the server about a red and she suggested a cab or a merlot. I said no to both. I asked her for a sample tasting of their Pinot and she held up a bottle of their Pinot Grigio. I smiled and said no, the Pinot Noir.

I sampled a Saunders Pinot Noir. It went very nicely with the pears and cheese. But I got a very bitter after taste with the salad and oil and vinegar dressing.

So much for that wine and food tasting experience.

If I can find the wine that foodie suggested, I'll try this meal again as a take out and eat and drink at home.

[ShortWiner]

Sounds like you needed a Reisling with a little sweetness to it.

[Scoop]

That restaurant was Coletta's, Foodie, where the king inhaled their famous BBQ pizza -- that is, pizza dough topped with hickory smoked, pulled pork shoulder in a secret spicy BBQ sauce. It sounds awful, but it wasn't/isn't. It's certainly a stretch to call pizza, but that's innovation for you: now BBQ pizza is being served by all the various chains! I would call it a southern (US)/Italian hybrid -- and I don't mean Campania.

And the Italian-American fare they served wasn't half bad either, at least when I was in Memphis many moons ago.

Cheers,

Scoop