Pairing tips for traditional Lenten recipes
Six weeks that set the scene for the end of winter. The beginning of spring. Six weeks, from Ash Wednesday to Easter. We are talking about Lent, the period that traditionally marks the run-up to Easter among Christians. It is a time of recollection after the splendour of Carnival. A time of abstinence, when meat was replaced by vegetables, pulses and fish.
Traditional Lent dishes excel for their healthy and nutritional qualities. It is as if traditions had caught up with all that nature has to offer and, in this way, we had created dishes inspired partly by the austere winter and partly by the spring that is just around the corner.
In Rioja, Rías Baixas, Ribera del Duero... Wherever we look after vineyards and make wine, we also enjoy their distinctive culinary traditions. That's wine for us: deep-rooted but also adapted to the climate and the produce that nature provides in each region. So, when Lent is at its peak, we like to enjoy traditional recipes paired with our wines. And we are discovering fantastic pairings.
Potaje de vigilia
Chickpeas are the star legume at this time of year. In this traditional stew, chickpeas are prepared with spinach and flaked, desalted cod. Slowly and gently cooked, the flavours are gradually blended together to create a well-balanced and rounded recipe.
The dish’s texture and vegetal, earthy and saline flavours call for a white wine with volume and structure. Viña Muriel Blanco Reserva 2014, made from Viura grapes, is fermented in oak barrels and aged for years.
Bacalao de Cuaresma
The star dish of the season. Cod, Lent's signature fish and also one of the most popular in Spanish cuisine, is the main ingredient in this recipe. This stew is made with sultanas, pine nuts and hard-boiled eggs, simmered in a delicate and intense sautéed sauce. When this dish is cooked in an earthenware casserole, the combination of flavours adds an extra layer of depth and ancestral flavour.
Bacalao de Cuaresma, with its sweet and salty flavours, calls for a long-aged red wine. Our choice is Muriel Reserva 2016, one of the most iconic wines of our estate and of Rioja Alavesa. It boasts complexity, elegance and lively depth.
Dessert: torrijas and buñuelos
Paradoxically, Lent is one of the sweetest and most sugary periods of the year. It is perhaps a way of mitigating the rigours of penitence; at night, families used to make deliciously simple sweets, such as the famous torrijas (Spanish-style French Toast) or the spongy buñuelos (sweet fritters).
To match the above, our Conde de los Andes cellar keeps historic bottles of semi-sweet whites, one of the most traditional styles of wine from Rioja Alta. The 2004 vintage is extraordinarily complex and balanced. Highly recommended with Lent desserts.
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