WineNZ Summer 2019-20

Food | Vic's Food N Wine...
Beef and laMB MeatBalls With Baked VegetaBles
Wine match: Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blend
Adding about one-third lamb mince to
the lean beef helped these meatballs hold
together, although we still encouraged the
process by stirring in a beaten egg and
a judicious sprinkling of breadcrumbs.
Spice was provided by ground cumin and
cinnamon, chopped and pre-fried red onion
and garlic plus a handful of finely chopped
parsley and Vietnamese mint. Browned in
oil, the meatballs were folded through a
melange of capsicums, red onion wedges
and thickly sliced parboiled potatoes before
the whole combo was sprinkled with sweet
paprika, seasoned and roasted. The dish
works with almost any robust red, but it is
particularly successful with the blackcurrant
and sweet spice characters of a Cabernet
Sauvignon/Merlot blend. Cabernet’s upfront
fruit is accentuated by the capsicums, while
the meatballs are cosseted by the savoury
warmth of fully ripe Merlot. All boxes ticked!
spicy eggplant
Wine match: Primitivo
Eggplant, cut into thick wedges
and browned in oil, was tossed
in a cautious amount of Harissa
and brown rice malt syrup, plus
seasoning. The result was flavourloaded,
sticky unctuousness that
we discovered was perfectly
matched by the gutsy, sweetedged
flavours of Primitivo – the
Italian grape that, it has been
proved, is named Zinfandel in the
US. The eggplant is addictively
delicious on its own, but offallovers
could emphasise its
rusticity by serving it alongside
thick slices of pink-cooked lamb’s
fry. The Primitivo we opened
was from Domodo in the Italian
province of Puglia, situated in
the ‘heel’ of this boot-shaped
country.
54 WineNZ Magazine | Summer 2019/2020