what kind of red wine would you use to make spaghetti sauce?

[NotUrsula]

DH makes a great sauce; he uses dry Marsala. <yum>

 

[Crankyshank]

If you have red wine left over, you can marinate steaks in it if you don't want to drink it

 

[Imzadi]

I read a recent article in the NY Times Eating In section and that said that when used in cooking, the variety or quality of wine used really doesn't make a real discernable difference in the quality of the dish.

The chefs on the Food Network channel all disagree. Tyler Florence, Bobby Flay, Rachael Ray & the verbose Emeril all say to never add a cheap wine that you wouldn't actually drink. The quality of the initial ingredients do affect the final outcome. Makes sense. They do say, the wines you add do not have to be expensive, just something you'd actually like drinking.

 

[bookgirl]

Unless you are reducing the wine for a sauce it doesn't matter what you use.The red wine in soups, stews and tomato based sauces is mainly for the acidity. Tomatoes do better with a little sugar and a little acidity to break them down and bring out their flavors. You can add vingar or even cooking sherry (that really cheap stuff you get from the store cooking aisle). I've used good wine, cheap wine and vingar/sherry with all the same results.

When reducing to make a sauce you are intensifing that particular flavor, at that time I will only use what I would drink from a glass.

Ps Just my opinion - if you are not willing to use a recipie because it has alcohol in it and you have a moral objection to spirits, the alcohol burns off during cooking, there is no reason to refuse the recipie for that reason. But since many who are anti-alcohol don't like having it in their house get the cooking sherry which is no more alcoholic than perfume.

 

[NotUrsula]

Be careful of "cooking wines" that are labeled as such -- most of them have a ton of salt added to them.

 

[cryssi]

I use whatever is on hand. Usually merlot (2 buck chuck from trader joes, lol) in beef stew and pot roasts, chardonnay in lighter dishes. I have found that if the wine is not so great, it will impart that flavor in the dish, so I'm going to try and shy away from the cheaper wines (except for the TJ ones, of course!). I recently opened a bottle of chiaro (DIS censored the other half of the name) from TJ, that is light, fruity, and slightly sweet. I put it in a pasta primavera and it was very nice.

I love chicken marsala, though, so I'm going to have to try cooking with marsala...

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

The chefs on the Food Network channel all disagree. Tyler Florence, Bobby Flay, Rachael Ray & the verbose Emeril all say to never add a cheap wine that you wouldn't actually drink. The quality of the initial ingredients do affect the final outcome. Makes sense. They do say, the wines you add do not have to be expensive, just something you'd actually like drinking.

Hey, use whatever wine you like, no skin off my nose. Just offering my experience and a little advice from the NY Times. Here's a portion of the article for anyone who'd like to read:

It Boils Down to This: Cheap Wine Works Fine

By JULIA MOSKIN
Published: March 21, 2007

IN the beginning, there was cooking wine.

Evan Sung for The New York Times

SAVE YOUR CASH There is no need to buy an expensive wine like Barolo to make a good risotto. And Americans cooked with it, and said it was good.
Then, out of the darkness, came a voice. Said Julia Child: “If you do not have a good wine to use, it is far better to omit it, for a poor one can spoil a simple dish and utterly debase a noble one.”

And so we came to a new gospel: Never cook with a wine you wouldn’t drink.

For my generation of home cooks, this line now has the unshakable ring of a commandment. It was the first thing out of the mouth of every expert I interviewed on the subject.

But it is not always helpful in the kitchen. For one thing, short of a wine that is spoiled by age, heat or a compromised cork, there are few that I categorically would not drink. (Although a cooking wine, which is spiked with salt and sometimes preservatives, has never touched my braising pot.)

And once a drinkable wine has been procured, trying to figure out whether it is the best one for a particular recipe can seem impossible. How much of the wine’s subtler qualities will linger in the finished dish? How much of the fruit flavor? Does it matter whether the wine is old or young, inexpensive or pricey, tannic or soft?

Two weeks ago I set out to cook with some particularly unappealing wines and promised to taste the results with an open mind. Then I went to the other extreme, cooking with wines that I love (and that are not necessarily cheap) to see how they would hold up in the saucepan.

After cooking four dishes with at least three different wines, I can say that cooking is a great equalizer.

I whisked several beurre blancs — the classic white wine and butter emulsion — pouring in a New Zealand sauvignon blanc with a perfume of Club Med piña coladas, an overly sweet German riesling and a California chardonnay so oaky it tasted as if it had been aged in a box of No. 2 pencils.

Although the wines themselves were unpleasant, all the finished sauces tasted just the way they should have: of butter and shallots, with a gentle rasp of acidity from the wine to emphasize the richness. There were minor variations — the riesling version was slightly sweet — but all of them were much tastier than I had expected.

Next I braised duck legs in a nonvintage $5.99 tawny port that reminded me of long-abandoned Halloween candy, with hints of Skittles and off-brand caramels. Then I cooked a second batch of duck legs in a 20-year-old tawny port deliciously scented with walnuts, leather and honey. Again, the difference was barely discernible: both pots were dominated by the recipe’s other ingredients: dried cherries, black pepper, coriander seed and the duck itself.

Wincing a little, I boiled a 2003 premier cru Sauternes from Château Suduiraut (“The vineyard is right next door to Yquem,” the saleswoman assured me), then baked it into an egg-and-cream custard to see whether its delicate citrusy, floral notes would survive the onslaught. They did, but the custard I made with a $5.99 moscato from Paso Robles, Calif., was just as fragrant.

Over all, wines that I would have poured down the drain rather than sip from a glass were improved by the cooking process, revealing qualities that were neutral at worst and delightful at best. On the other hand, wines of complexity and finesse were flattened by cooking — or, worse, concentrated by it, taking on big, cartoonish qualities that made them less than appetizing.

It wasn’t that the finished dishes were identical — in fact, they did have surprisingly distinct flavors — but the wonderful wines and the awful ones produced equally tasty food, especially if the wine was cooked for more than a few minutes.

The final test was a three-way blind tasting of risotto al Barolo, the Piedmontese specialty in which rice is simmered until creamy and tender in Barolo and stock, then whipped with butter and parmigiano. Barolo, made entirely from the nebbiolo grape, is a legendary Italian wine; by law, it must be aged for at least three years to soften its aggressive tannins and to transform it into the smooth aristocrat that fetches top dollar on the international wine market.

 

[cryssi]

great article, thanks! from my personal experience, adding something I didn't really like, though, like the wild horse chardonnay in my fridge to certain things didn't really work.

I will take back my previous statement about not using cheap stuff, because it does work well in the crock pot...haven't crocked it in awhile so I forgot! lol

 

[wilderness01]

Burgandy

 

[Pop Daddy]

maddog

 

[LindsayDunn228]

I use a splash of merlot.

 

[ducklite]

So how did it come out?

Anne

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I hate red wine too. I would use my Beringer Zin.

 

[imsorry]

We like to drink Merlot; so I use whatever is left in the bottle when I make my sauce. It's delicious.

 

[Tazicket]

So how did it come out?

Anne

I'm making it as I type. It's a slow cooker sauce recipe I got from someone on here. We decided to go with a Merlot from Chile. It smelled really good when I left the house this morning! I'll let you know how it tastes after dinner.

 

[TPCShauna]

I certainly hope you're willing to share the recipe!

 

[Big V]

I like to use Bolla Valpolicella in my Italian sauces. It has a nice flavor and it's not real expensive. It's not bad by the glass either!

 

[Ciao Mickey]

Unless you are reducing the wine for a sauce it doesn't matter what you use.The red wine in soups, stews and tomato based sauces is mainly for the acidity. Tomatoes do better with a little sugar and a little acidity to break them down and bring out their flavors. You can add vingar or even cooking sherry (that really cheap stuff you get from the store cooking aisle). I've used good wine, cheap wine and vingar/sherry with all the same results.

When reducing to make a sauce you are intensifing that particular flavor, at that time I will only use what I would drink from a glass.

Ps Just my opinion - if you are not willing to use a recipie because it has alcohol in it and you have a moral objection to spirits, the alcohol burns off during cooking, there is no reason to refuse the recipie for that reason. But since many who are anti-alcohol don't like having it in their house get the cooking sherry which is no more alcoholic than perfume.

There's cheap wine and then there is inexpensive wine.

I personally don't use wine when making a pot of gravy or a tomato sauce.

I do use wine when making meat sauce (Bolognese).

I don't think wine and vinegar are interchangeable in a recipe.

If you won't drink a wine then you shouldn't cook with it.

I agree with you about the sugar. Depending on the tomatoes, sometimes you need a pinch or more of sugar to reduce the tartness of the tomatoes.

 

[bookgirl]

There's cheap wine and then there is inexpensive wine.

I personally don't use wine when making a pot of gravy or a tomato sauce.

I do use wine when making meat sauce (Bolognese).

I don't think wine and vinegar are interchangeable in a recipe.

If you won't drink a wine then you shouldn't cook with it.

I agree with you about the sugar. Depending on the tomatoes, sometimes you need a pinch or more of sugar to reduce the tartness of the tomatoes.

Considering your name and the use of "gravy" I'm betting you know your italian food. I've only used vinagar as a substitute when I had no wine and I absolutly needed an acid in a recipe, it turned out great. But I don't use it regularly.

 

[Tazicket]

I certainly hope you're willing to share the recipe!

Here's the recipe from my other thread:

I've got a great one, but it's a long process LOL

It's orginally for stove top, but I changed it a bit to work in the slow cooker. It's amazingly good. I usually make a 1.5x batch and freeze it. It's a good basic recipe, so you can change it up how ever you'd like. I found it on the Cooking Light message board

Lindrusso's Magnificent Marinara

1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sugar
3-4 medium onions, chopped
1/2-1 cup cup dry red wine
6 cloves garlic, crushed with the blade of a knife
3 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes (or 2 28-ounce cans crushed and 2 14-ounce cans diced if you want a bit more chunkiness)
2 (6-ounce) cans tomato paste
2 teaspoons oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
(or sub an Italian seasoning mix. I've also used Herbs De Provance)
pinch of crushed red pepper or more to taste
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil


Put the onions, oil and 1 tablespoon of suger in the crockpot. Stir so the onions are well coated. Cook on low 8 hours or overnight until the onions are carmalized and soft. (You can also do this part on the stove--it takes about 45 minutes)

In the morning, add the rest of the ingredients. Cook on low for another 6-8 hours. Stir every so often to prevent it from browning or burning along the edges. If you like a slightly thicker sauce, cook for the last hour or so with the lid off.

I also buy the frozen cubes of basil at Trade Joes, and when I heat up a portion for dinner, I throw in a cube or two. I also add a little more red wine, esp. if I'm adding ground turkey or something.

It was pretty good We wound up adding a bit more sugar to it, but I think it was because of the wine (I added 1/2 cup). It might be just that we aren't really used to it in sauces.