Pinot Noir Food: Pasta Fagioli

A former employee gave me a really nice bottle of Pinot Noir, 2004 Giaconda from Victoria, Oz, and so we decided we wanted some food to go with it. On Sunday evening, Ann was talking about roast chicken with roasted potatoes and a green veg. But when I mentioned picking up a chicken on Monday morning, she changed her mind. She insisted that pasta fagioli was perfectly good Pinot food! I believe that it was just Sunday that she was reminding me that I hadn't made pasta fagioli in all of 2014 or the winter of 2013.

Pasta Fagioli

And so without too much argument, I assented to make pasta fagioli though I still think a roast chicken would have been a better Pinot complement. But after my battery died at Costco and I stood around in the AutoZone parking lot, snow flurrying about on the stiff breeze, changing out a most recalcitrant battery with borrowed tools, I was mightily glad of the comfort food.

If the picture looks all wrong for pasta fagioli, that's because it is all wrong. Ann had to go by the regular grocery store so she said she would get some ditalini, but when she got there, she found that they had stopped stocking it, so she grabbed Barilla orecchiette instead. Barilla orecchiette is not the DeCecco orecchiette that we are used to, but still some orecchiette is better than none. Moreover, the beans are wrong as well. While at FoodMaxx I reached for the cans of alubias blancas (FoodMaxx's clientele being largely Latino, everything is labeled in Spanish) but instead grabbed the habichuelas blancas right next to them. So instead of cannellini, I ended up with navy beans! Derp!

In any case, a little mirepoix, a few ounces of my house-cured pancetta, some herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme), a lot of garlic, a touch of tomato paste, and some white wine quickly became the sauce while the pasta was cooking. Some cheese and olive oil over the top finished each of our bowls of deliciousness. And it sure was good with our Pinot Noir!