Vegans need to eat too!

All right, on Friday two of my friends coming to the party are vegan. I have been going over all sorts of different ideas in my head on what type of food I could make for them. Someone suggested tofu, to be honest I don't have much experience with tofu, so I canned that idea and another suggestion was the obvious, hummus. Don't get me wrong, hummus will probably make it on the table Friday night, but I wanted to cook something up that they could enjoy and that I could pair with a wine!

Here's what I'm thinking. I want to pair a dish with a bottle of Chianti, which is the wine of the Tuscan region. Since the people that live in the Tuscan region of Italy are known as the bean eaters, I thought I would incorporate a bean dish into the night. So, here is the dish, a hearty white bean stew cooked down with mirepoix, sage and a little garlic. The beans will be tossed with an uccelletto sauce, a tomato sauce cooked down with fresh sage and then finished with a drizzle of extra virggin olive oil. With it I will have some toasted sour dough bread for dunking and enjoying all the sauce. This will be perfect with a bottle of Chianti.

I decided not to stop there with vegan delights, I think a platter full of assorted vegetables, all cooked in different ways would also pair well with this wine. On the platter I see, eggplant caponata (minus the anchovy), roasted beets, grilled rapini, quick pickled onions, marinated olives and some kind of mushroom (sauted, shaved or roasted?). Maybe for the dairy and meat lovers, I will add some sharp provolone cheese and salami to the platter. For this platter, I may look for a bottle of Barbera which is sightly dry and can stand up to sharp flavors.

Tomorrows post, we'll talk sliders, beer and pickles! Enjoy!