Tagliatelle with Sweet Wine
I feel like any chance I can get to incorporate pasta into a dessert, I will take it.
This dish of tagliatelle with reduced sweet wine and walnuts comes from a time in Italian history when sugar was wildly expensive and only the rich could afford the sweet indulgence, so the more common/poor folks had to come up with ways to add sweetness to their dishes, and one of the ways they did that was with fruit or fruit-flavored products.
At that same time, crushed grapes, including juice, skins, and seeds, were simmered down into a fruity syrup known as Vincotto that would be used as a sweetener to add wonderful fruity flavor to their dishes, be it a dessert or otherwise.
Today, Vincotto is described as fruity red wine reduced with sugar, ginger, and spices to form a sweet, slightly spicy syrup that has a wide range of culinary applications. I would drizzle vincotto on top of ice cream, onto cake, I might use it as a cocktail syrup, and I might even mix it with some red wine vinegar and olive oil for a fruity, spiced salad dressing.
While you can certainly buy Vincotto online, as we say in the restaurant industry: “Why buy what you can make?”
Tagliatelle with Sweet Wine
Serves 3-4
Time: 45 mins, plus cooling time
For the Vincotto (reduced wine syrup):
4 cups of fruity red wine (Merlot, Zinfandel, Sangiovese or Cabernet Sauvignon will do. But don’t feel the need to use an expensive bottle of wine for this, there’s no need. Save that stuff to drink with this dessert)
1 cup of sugar
2-inch piece of fresh ginger, sliced 1/4 inch thick. It doesn’t have to be precise.
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon of cardamom pods
2 whole cloves (Not garlic cloves!!!)
For the pasta and dressing:
1 pound of Tagliatelle pasta (fresh or dried)
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/3 cup of walnuts, roughly chopped
Pour the wine and all of the other ingredients for the Vincotto into a saucepan. Bring it to a boil, then let it simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the wine has reduced to about 1 cup. Strain it to remove the spices, then set aside to cool. (If you happen to have some Vincotto leftover, then you can store it for up to 3 months.)
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. If using fresh pasta, cook for 2 minutes or until the pasta floats to the top of the water, if using dried, then cook according to the package directions for al dente. Drain, then set aside for a moment.
In a saute pan wide enough to contain the pasta, bring the Vincotto and cinnamon to a simmer. Add the pasta, then toss to coat and let it cook for about a minute so the pasta and the Vincotto can get to know each other. Pile everything onto a serving platter, then top with the walnuts.
So, I have never made this dish before writing this, but I am glad I did. That Vincotto has so much depth of flavor from the wine’s natural fruitiness, that bit of spice from the ginger and cinnamon, the walnuts are nice to add a bit of texture to the dish and all of that pasta seemed to have been meant to twirl and slurp up that beautiful wine.
This is a very easy but delicious dessert that I believe anyone can make at home.
