By Christine Salins.
A glass of wine for the chef and a glass for the dish. That’s my idea of a good food and wine match!
The wonderful Spaghettini dish with cherry tomatoes, baby capers and vongole, featured here, is a simple Italian dish, bursting with flavour and perfect on a warm summer’s day.
It contains just shy of a cup of Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio, a crisp and refreshing Italian white that is celebrating 60 years of production. That’s quite an extraordinary achievement and definitely something to celebrate.
To mark the occasion, the brand called on Italian-Australian cook, Silvia Colloca, to create a recipe to go with this food-friendly wine.
Colloca, who is an opera singer as well as a great self-taught cook, hosted the SBS TV show, Made in Italy with Silvia Colloca, which turned out to be hugely successful. It led to a string of cookbooks from her, including Simple Italian, Silvia’s Cucina, Made in Italy, La Dolce Vita and Love, Laugh, Bake!
Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio is the best-selling Pinot Grigio by value in Australia and a huge contributor to sales of Italian whites worldwide. It was revolutionary when it debuted in Italy in the 1950s but as you’ll see if you go over to this week’s wine column, the variety has come a long way since then.
Spaghettini with cherry tomatoes, baby capers and vongole
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, skin on, bashed with the palm of your hand
3 spring onions, roughly chopped
½ red chilli thinly sliced, plus extra to garnish
200ml Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio
1 small handful of baby capers, well washed
650g of cherry tomatoes
1.5kg of vongole, well washed
400g spaghettini
1 handful of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large heavy-based saucepan over high heat. Add the garlic, spring onion and chilli and toss until the garlic starts to become golden and fragrant. Add the vongole, tomatoes, capers, pour in the Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio and cook for about 2 minutes until the alcohol has evaporated.
Cover with a tight‒fitting lid and allow the shells to open. They will start to open after 1 to 2 minutes. As they do, fish them out with a slotted spoon and set them aside in a clean bowl. Discard any that don’t open.
In the meantime, drop your spaghettini into the boiling water and cook for 4 minutes, to just before al dente. Remove the spaghettini with tongs and drop them into the wine and tomato sauce, dragging along a little pasta cooking water. Start stirring gently for 1 to 2 minutes — the sauce will thicken ever so slightly as the spaghettini soak up all the juices. Turn off the heat, then return the open vongole to the pan, along with the precious juices they released while resting. Scatter over the parsley and extra chilli and eat straight away.
