11/6/08 Food & Wine: Soup

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran and today is food and wine pairing. I have what may be considered an unusual pairing of soup and wine that I want to share with you - and it is perfect for the fall season. There is no shortage of recipes on line and probably in the cookbooks in your kitchen. What I am encouraging you to look for is a recipe for a tomato soup that uses roasted tomatoes. The process of roasting or grilling a tomato changes its make up and the flavors become a bit more concentrated and intense. This in turn makes a rich and flavorful soup. I found recently that a soup such as this seems to go very well with the Italian grape variety Barbera. Barbera is a red wine grape that is the second most-planted in Italy. It has deep color and attractive levels of acid. When young, the wines offer a very intense aroma of fresh red and black berries. In the lightest versions seem to go best with the soup and a nice loaf of crusty bread. The lightest versions are not recommended for cellaring but they are great for drinking now so they are often quite reasonably priced. But keep in mind there are people growing this grape in the United States as well and some of theose from California and Washington state are absolutely delightful. One of my favorites is produced by the Washington winery Barnard Griffin. Just find yourself a good recipe for tomato soup and try serving it with a nice Barbera for something completely different and absolutely delicious! Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.