Food Recipes Cooked with Wine

By Faith Bennett Published October 2020

There’s something about cooking with wine that gives us an overflowing amount of joy. Not only are you pouring it in to enhance your recipe, but you’ve probably also poured yourself a glass while prepping the dish. We love bringing delicious recipes to our friends and family, especially during the holiday season. Our ABC team (really family) members have given us their favorite recipes made with wine to share for you to craft up this season. The wines selected not only complement the ingredients, they are also superb to enjoy alongside them.

Before we get you too hungry, we’ve laid out some tips for cooking with wine.

1. It’s a myth that “bad” wine is good for cooking. Never choose a wine that you wouldn’t drink on its own.

2. Cooking with wine balances out your dish. For savory dishes, it adds a balance of acidity, whereas sweeter desserts, like cake, it brings out complementary flavors and lightens up the dessert.

3. If you want to stock up for future recipes that call for wine, stick to versatile wines. Dry, crisp whites like Pinot Grigio and medium-bodied reds like Merlot will do the trick.

4. Accidently add too much wine (it’s happened to us after a few pre-cooking glasses)? Butter is your best friend – the richness will cut through excess wine and bring your dish back to life.

5. There are no hard-set rules when cooking with wine. Experiment and enjoy!

Now that you have these tips in mind, let’s dish out the main event – our team’s favorite recipes made with wine.

Moules Mariniere

“I’m a simple kind of guy – not necessarily a great chef – so I appreciate good food that is simple to prepare,” says ABC wine expert Bill Stobbs. “More than that, I love the fact that good food is made even better with good wine. Wine plus food is natural for me. I sip wine while I cook, I include wine in what I cook and of course I enjoy a glass or two of wine with the meal itself. So here is one of my favorite simple recipes that can be prepared and served in no time at all: Moules Mariniere.”

Ingredients:

• 4 dozen mussels

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter

• 1 onion, chopped

• 2 garlic cloves, minced

• 2 thyme sprigs

• 2 parsley sprigs

• 1 bay leaf

• 2 cups white wine

• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt

• 6 tablespoons fresh parsley leaves, chopped

Directions:

Wash the mussels in cold running water and scrub away the beard (any stringy bits).

In a large pot, melt the butter at a medium to high heat. Add the chopped onion, garlic, herb sprigs and bay leaf and stir for about sixty seconds. Then add wine, pepper and salt, and bring to a boil. Add mussels. Cover and cook for 4 – 5 minutes, shaking the pot occasionally until the mussels have opened.

Remove from heat. Discard any mussels that have not opened. Garnish with chopped parsley. Pour the contents of the pot into bowls and serve with fresh crusty baguettes and wine.

“Although wine is a large ingredient in this dish, it does not need to be super-expensive,” Bill explains. “A simple, inexpensive white wine is what is required here – a Muscadet is almost traditional with this dish, but you can also use a Pinot Grigio, a Chenin Blanc or a simple Sauvignon Blanc.

I often use Muscadet because using a French wine in a traditional French dish just seems like the right thing to do. I recommend Le Domaine Muscadet Sevre et Maine from the western Loire Valley in France as the perfect wine to add to and to sip with this dish. It is light but well-made and interesting, and its crisp acidity and lemony, salty notes are perfect with seafood. Since a good deal of the wine is used in the dish itself, I highly recommend buying two (or three) bottles!”

Saffron Shrimp & Pasta

Wine and pasta are the ultimate duo, add in seafood and you have a trifecta to die for...or drool over. Our wine expert, Shayne Hebert, has presented a dish that’s impossible to look over – Saffron shrimp and pasta, using Chateau Trians Provence Rosé, from our Sourced & Certified Collection.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound pasta or orzo, al dente and strained

• 3-4 tablespoons butter

• 3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 2-3 fresh garlic cloves, smashed or finely chopped

• 1 pound large shrimp, peeled & deveined

• 2 pinches saffron

• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

• Salt

• Pepper

• ¾ - 1 cup Rosé wine, as desired

• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

• Grated Pecorino or Reggiano

• Fresh basil, chopped

Directions:

Cook pasta al dente and set aside.

Melt butter and olive oil in a large, deep skillet, then add chopped garlic. Combine shrimp and sauté, stirring occasionally. Once lightly sautéed, set on low to medium heat and add saffron, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper (to taste), wine and cherry tomatoes. Let simmer to dissipate alcohol.

In a separate bowl, combine pasta with basil and grated cheese. Toss together until pasta is coated.

Plate pasta and place shrimp and tomatoes on top, then pour over remaining sauce. Garnish with more grated cheese and chopped basil.

Buttery Scallops in White Wine Sauce

ABC team member Indy Vegel says, “butter, garlic and wine, both red and white, are always friends,” and we can’t agree more. Her buttery scallop recipe incorporates Adorn Chardonnay, a wine bursting with citrus and lemon cream aromas that work to enrich this dish and enhance the flavors.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 1 ¼ pounds scallops, fresh or frozen

• Salt

• Pepper

• 4 tablespoons salted butter

• 4-5 garlic cloves, thinly chopped

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• ½ cup Chardonnay

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

• ¼ cup chicken bone broth

• 1 cup croutons

• ¼ cup parsley, chopped

• Red pepper flakes

Directions:

If scallops are frozen, thaw in cold water. Thoroughly pat until dry.

Heat olive oil in large pan or skillet over medium to high heat until hot. Add scallops, leaving space between them.

Season scallops to taste with salt and pepper and sear for 1-2 minutes, flip scallops and repeat until lightly brown. Once cooked, place scallops on a separate plate.

Add butter into the same pan, scrapping up any brown left over from scallops. Add garlic and cook until transparent. Then, combine flour and stir until butter and garlic thicken, then add wine, lemon juice and broth. Mix thoroughly for 2 minutes, before adding scallops.

Serve scallops over pasta, rice or zoodles. Garnish with crumbled croutons, parsley and add red pepper flakes if desired.

Bucatini all’Amatriciana

“Bucatini all’Amatriciana is a flavorful dish from the mountainous area of the Italian region of Lazio,” explains Nathan Dale, ABC wine expert. To complete this traditional recipe, Nathan suggests using Cantine Volpi Gavi di Gavi DOCG, a very dry Italian wine with clean acidity and notes of citrus.

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ pounds ripe plum tomatoes

• 4 ounces sliced guanciale or pancetta

• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

• 2 dried red chilies, broken into bits with or without seeds for heat as desired

• ¾ pound bucatini pasta

• ½ cup white wine

• 2 pinches sugar

• Salt

• Freshly ground black pepper

• ½ cup freshly grated pecorino Romano cheese

• Fresh parsley leaves, chopped

Directions:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Blanch the tomatoes in the boiling water for 1 minute. Use tongs to remove them and let cool until you can handle, then remove their skins. Cut them into quarters, remove the seeds and roughly chop. Reserve the water for cooking the pasta, keeping it at a simmer.

If using guanciale, cut into ¼ to ½ inch wide strips, 1 inch long. If using pancetta, cut into 1/3 wide strips, 1 inch long.

Bring the large pot of water back up to a boil. As the water heats up, heat a skillet large and deep enough to hold the finished pasta dish over low to medium heat for 2 - 3 minutes. Then, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and let heat for 2 minutes. Once heated, add guanciale or pancetta and red chile pieces. Cook, stirring a few times, for 5 - 6 minutes or until the meat turns a light golden color (don’t let it crisp). Transfer the meat to a small dish.

Once the water is boiling, add salt (1 tablespoon for every 4 cups water) and stir. Add the bucatini, stirring for the first minute to prevent any sticking. Cook according to the package instructions, draining the pasta 2 minutes short of the directed cooking time so it is soft but still firm and reserve ¼ cup of the pasta water before draining. Return the empty pot to the stove. Immediately turn the heat to high, add the remaining 1 teaspoon oil and reserved pasta water. Add the drained pasta and toss for a minute. Then remove from heat.

Add wine to the skillet on medium to high heat. Scrape the browned bits that stick to the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Cook for 5 minutes to reduce the wine. Add tomatoes, sugar, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook for 10 minutes; the bubbling of the sauce should be lively. Every so often, add a few spoonsful of the pasta water if it looks as though the sauce is thickening up too much.

Transfer the pasta to the skillet with the sauce, sprinkle over the pecorino and meat, tossing continuously for 2 minutes.

Dan’s Dark Chocolate Zinfandel Bundt Cake

Does your sweet tooth get the best of you? Same. Indulge in your cravings with ABC wine expert Dan Eddy’s, perfectly balanced, decedent dark chocolate dessert infused with red Zinfandel-goodness. Trust us when we say you’ll be going back for seconds.

Ingredients:

For Bundt Cake

• 1 cup red Zinfandel

• ¾ cup bittersweet chocolate

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• ½ teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon sea salt

• ¼ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

• ⅔ cup unsalted butter, softened

• 1 cup sugar

• 3 large eggs

• ½ cup sour cream

For Cocoa Wine Glaze

• 6 tablespoons sugar

• 2 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa powder

• 2 cups red Zinfandel

• 5 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into five pieces

Directions:

For Bundt Cake

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter a Bundt pan thoroughly or use cooking spray.

Pour wine into a saucepan and bring to a low boil, then cook for about 3 minutes or until it reduces to ¾ cup. Pour half of heated wine into a heat safe bowl to cool and set aside. Combine chocolate with remaining warm wine and heat over a double boiler. Stir until smooth and let cool.

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients, whisk and set aside.

In a separate bowl, cream butter in a stand mixer. Combine sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time. Then, add sour cream and gradually mix in the melted chocolate and wine mixture. Once combined, stir in ⅓ of the dry mixture, then ½ of the leftover wine that was set aside earlier, repeat this until both are added and completely blended.

Pour batter in buttered Bundt pan and bake for 50 - 55 minutes. Let cool on a rack. Once cooled, use a knife to loosen the edges and flip to release cake from pan.

Serve with a dusting of powdered sugar and cocoa powder or a cocoa wine glaze.

For Cocoa Wine Glaze

In a saucepan whisk together sugar, cocoa and wine and bring to a boil on medium to high heat, whisking while simmering for 3 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in butter, one piece at a time. Let cool for 5 minutes, then refrigerate, stirring occasionally over 40 minutes.

Slowly spoon glaze over cooled cake and enjoy.

Looking for more recipes to present your friends and family this season? We’ve created a guide full of food and cocktail recipes with holiday tips and tricks for your festivities here.

Pricing, selection and vintages may vary by location.

Interested in learning more? Visit our ABC Blog page.