Can You Cook with Rosé Wine?
Usually when wines get involved with cooking it’s the fruity reds, the crisp whites and the sweeter dessert wines that get picked to be on the team, leaving poor old rosé sat on the bleachers.
However, fashion moves on in food just as it does in clothes and people are wondering what, if anything, they can do with this blushing wine to create a bit of a stir at the dinner table.
Quite a lot, it would seem. This pink wine is created by crushing black grapes – the type used to make the more familiar reds – and leaving the skins in the mix (known as the must) for just a day or three. This imparts some colour and flavour, ranging from a slight pink tinge to an almost-but-not-quite red hue.
Rosé has been overlooked as a culinary ingredient, but it’s time to bring it out of the closet so it can say out loud that it’s pink and it’s proud!
Use it to poach pears
Traditionally red is used in this dessert, and occasionally white, but a nice twist is to use a sweeter rosé to give this subtly-flavored fruit a different, but appealing, shade.
Use it in a stew
That’s right – a stew, like beef or chicken stew, or a thick pasta ragu. Think about it, the color isn’t going to matter, but the slightly darker taste will have an effect.
Try it with salmon
Fish usually gets the dry white treatment, never the red. How about a compromise with a lighter-hued rosé? You’ll need a crisper type, and the color should blend in quite well with the salmon.
Make a granita
Red wine is a bit too dark to have a visual appeal in a granita, and white is just meh, so again, go for the compromise and use a blushing mid-pink rosé in this posh, grown-ups’ snow cone. Remember that alcoholic drinks take longer to freeze, so plan it well if you want to impress your guests.