Wine pairings for Fettuccine alla Papalina
Bianco: Tabbarini Trebbiano Spoletino Ardamando, Valentini Trebbiano d’Abruzzo
Rosso: Argiolas Iselis Rosso Isola dei Nuraghi, Sella & Mosca Cannonau di Sargenga Riserva
This Sunday Pasta is packed with big flavors of savory and salty ingredients. Its eggs, cream, butter, and cheese give it substantial weight, allowing it to take on richer wines. Richer wines often see new oak during their aging process, and while new oak’s spice notes might work here, it’s commonly found vanilla, coffee and chocolate flavors would not. Wines that see older or neutral oak, which impart little or no flavor, work just fine, though. This dish has a lot of complex flavor, so it’s worth shelling out a few more bucks to get additional complexity from the wine, too.
For a white wine, Trebbiano is an easy choice from the south, both because there is a lot of it planted and because it has a rich texture and fruit profile. Both unoaked versions, like the Tabbarini, and versions aged in larger and older oak, like the Valentini, meld well with this pasta. (Be forewarned: the Valentini usually carries a three-digit price tag!)
Reds from Sardinia have bold flavors and generous body to match this pasta. From Sardinia, wines with Grenache (known locally as Cannonau) or Monica work particularly well as those grapes give a touch of softness to the wines’ sometimes-rustic edges. Wines with a significant portion of Monica, like the Iselis Rosso blend of local grapes Monica, Carignan and Bovale Sardo, tend to be on the lighter end of medium-bodied.
Check out our recipe for Fettuccine alla Papalina.
Cin cin!
Christy Canterbury, Master of Wine (MW)
Wine Editor
@canterburywine
