Poor Sweet Marsala
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I hope this post doesn’t come off like I am
an avid wine consumer. As a matter of fact, I am
(not). =)
I enjoy my love-hate relationship with it, but all said and done, wine always maketh a good meal. There is nothing in the world like giving your pasta a good swim in heavy cream and sweet marsala. It turns out, I am not the only person who feels this way. A few days ago, we went to Cheesecake Factory where I ordered a veggie version of Pasta Da Vinci. It was the most flavorful and fulfilling meal I’ve had in a long time. I was certain that it had some kind of wine in it and asked the waitress for the ingredients. Sure enough, the pasta was doused in a sweet Madeira wine sauce. Madeira is very hard to find. It’s one of those things you want to horde forever if you are lucky enough to find one in a wine store. Tapi and I looked everywhere for Madeira. The local store owners seemed to know a great deal about it and enthusiastically shared everything they knew. We learnt that it was a Portuguese wine and is used as much to drink as to cook, in just the same way as Marsala, but has a milder and sweeter flavor. After learning everything from the method of vinification and “what goes best with a Madeira”, we walked out of each store with enough knowledge to start our own wiki, but with no bottle in hand. Anyway, yesterday I came home and tried my version of pasta da vinci avec sweet marsala and sans chicken and madeira. (fancy?) What I came up with is a decent version of the cheesecake factory recipe. So here’s what it takes to make it. Cook a box of penne pasta in suitably salted water until al dente. Slow cook one red onion, half a cup of shiitake mushrooms, and two table spoons of garlic in a good extra virgin olive oil. Toss with the pasta. In the same skillet, simmer a cup of sweet marsala (Madeira) wine over medium heat until the liquid is reduced by two-thirds. Let the wine cool a bit and mix in a cup of heavy cream and half a cup of sour cream. Swirl in a tablespoon of butter in the end and mix with the pasta. On par with Cheesecake's? You bet! |
