Anyway, I am increasingly of the opinion that Italian food goes exceptionally well with Belgian beer.  Which would explain why several of the craft breweries in Italy (inspired by the American craft brewing revolution) focus heavily on Belgian styles: http://www.bunitedint.com/portfolios/collections/beer/country.php?country=Italy They’ve figured out that Belgian style beers go very well with their native cuisine.

Gulden Draak is a Belgian strong dark featuring the typical spicy and dark fruity flavors of BSDs.  Something like red wine.  And BSDs typically compliment tomato-heavy Italian dishes very well.  I’ve had a lot of success on this front and will probably reach for a Belgian style beer nearly every time I prepare an Italian style meal for the foreseeable future.

At least that’s my story.  I have no idea what those slackers Stuart and Doug have been up to.

I’m going to have to ease back into this.  I wanted to mention the best pairing I’ve enjoyed in a while, which is stated flatly in the post title.

Trois Pistoles is a Belgian strong dark, a fantastic style of beer with tons of depth and complexity.  They typically feature raisin, plum, red wine type flavors with spicy phenols from the Belgian yeast.  I definitely wasn’t sure it would go well with marinara, but it was sheer perfection.

The meal was just canned marinara sauce poured over sauteed chicken.  A little fresh garlic thrown in.  Served over prepackaged polenta from Whole Foods.  Very quick, very easy, tasty, and a perfect compliment to the Trois Pistoles.

Which, incidentally, will soon be available here in Bama.  Mine was recently purchased on some out of state traveling but word on the street is that it will appear on shelves of AL retailers soon.  Unibroue is world class all the way, so I can’t wait.

This time it was a homebrewed tripel.  A fine example of the style if I do say so myself.  Previously I’d tried two different IPAs with a big fail.  In contrast, I’ve had some success with pairing Belgian-style beers and Italian food.  I felt good about this one going in.

Bah!  This was a tiny bit better than the IPA pairings, but still not right.  I’m forelorn.

I guess my next attempt with something similar will be a malty Belgian.  Tripels are very light and spicy; maybe a little more raisin and plum from some dark candi sugar would bring this around.

Right now I’m just irked at three failed rounds with this one dish.  Criminy.

Serve it all up on a plate and microwave for several minutes and voilà.

Beeristically, I was determined to go another round with an IPA.  Last time it was Sweetwater’s hop bomb with prominent flavors of peach and grapefruit.  So today I called upon Harpoon IPA, still with a bit citrus but much heavier on the floral and spicy notes you’d expect from English ales. Its hop profile is substantially different from Sweetwater IPA and thus a good test of whether this particular dish has any hope with IPAs more generally.

The verdict? Not much hope for IPAs with this one.

What’s really odd is that after the first bite and first sip I liked it.  It seemed to be working and I thought I had a winner.  This persisted for a few bites until it crossed a line, and then there was an unpleasant clash of flavors.

Surprising to me that the clash didn’t surface until several bites into the meal.  I have no explanation for this phenomenon.  But once it surfaced, it was clear I needed to set the beer down and abandon the pairing.

This dish was one of my better works of food art in recent weeks.  I would really hate to see it polished off without a good pairing.  I still have a fair amount left for another meal.  I’ve decided the next time I go a round with this I’ll bring a Belgian tripel to the table.  I’m utterly confident that will be stellar.

Not tomorrow, as I’ll be in Montgomery most of the day, culminating in the Free The Hops Legislative Reception tomorrow evening.  But Thursday is a good candidate.  We’ll see how things go.

Action shot!

I had previously done a successful pairing with Sweetwater IPA and an Italian dish, but the food was kinda crudely thrown together, and it featured a cream sauce.  I wanted to give it another go with a more properly-prepared Italian dish, and one featuring a tomato-based sauce.  If I keep this blog going long enough you’ll probably see me pair Sweetwater IPA with nearly every food imaginable as it’s one of my favorite beers, even including the thousands I’ve sampled that aren’t available in Alabama.  Yes, it’s that good.

As for the sauce, I’m not hardcore opposed to sauce from a jar, but when I can I usually go with the method outlined by Ezra Klein here.  My “aromatics” were the quintessential elements of a good tomato sauce, in my opinion.  Onion, mushrooms, and garlic.  All fresh.  Add large can of diced tomatoes (mine were organic, from Whole Foods, with basil).  And salt, pepper, oregano.  I also happened to have a few ounces of leftover sour cream in the fridge that needed polishing off, so I threw that in.  You’ll notice in the pic it’s a creamy tomato sauce, rather than pure red tomato sauce.

Simmered sausages in a separate pan.  Mild Italian, turkey.  Whole wheat noodles.  And upon serving it up, sprinkled with a six cheese blend including asiago, romano, mozzarella, and parmesan.  In short, this was a truly excellent meal.  One of my finest Italian creations.

And Sweetwater IPA?  Not so much.  Not cringe-inducing, but there was a bit of a funky clash of flavors toward the end of a sip taken right after a bite.  I really don’t think all IPAs are indicted by this so much as Sweetwater specifically.  There’s a massive range of flavors among different hop varieties, so I’d like to try something with some English hops here.

As luck would have it, I have substantial leftovers.  I’m going to dig up an English-style IPA and give it another go.  I probably even have enough to test a third beer, too.  I’m certain something in the ballpark of a Belgian pale ale would work, but I’m trying to push the envelope a bit…

WHERE ARE THE MUSHROOMS?!

The meal was another kit dealie.  Passable.  It really needed mushrooms, and we didn’t have any on hand (and the box didn’t suggest adding them, gasp).   And the flavor needed a little more punch.  It was extremely mild.  But decent.

So.  Chicken Marsala.  That’s made with wine (yes, there’s actually a packet of marsala cooking wine in the kit).  “But Danner!” you say.  “Surely you need to pair wine with an Italian dish made with wine.”  “Never!” I say.  I’m pretty obnoxious in my unwavering belief in the superiority of beer over wine in every way imaginable.  I harbor deep-seated resentments over wine’s undeserved status as the high-class beverage of choice in fine restaurants.   And I’m quite bitter that I’ve never been to an Italian restaurant with a decent beer selection, when Italian food is my favorite style of food.

I’ve been holding onto this Le Merle for quite a while now, waiting to spring it upon an unsuspecting Italian dish.  I decided tonight was the night to crack it open.  I actually didn’t even realize when I bought it that it was brewed by North Coast.  I just saw the word “saison” on the label and picked it up without much thought.  I’m constantly in search of great saisons.  I try them all, hoping one day to find another brewery that “gets it” the way Fantome gets it.

I noticed the North Coast brand tonight before I popped the cork, and I knew instantly it would be in the Dupont ballpark of saisons, not the Fantome ballpark, before I even opened the bottle.  North Coast is a great brewery (their Red Seal is one of my all-time faves), but I just knew they’d go for something similar to Saison Dupont and Hennepin.  And I was right.

It matters not.  I felt like either type of saison would work with chicken marsala.  And Le Merle didn’t prove me wrong.  It is very similar to a Belgian strong golden ale, with plenty of fruity esters and some nice spicy phenols from the yeast.  Really well done as non-Fantome Belgian beers go.  Plenty in common with some dry white wines, only better.

It paired perfectly with chicken marsala.  I can’t imagine having to suffer through some boring grape juice instead of a good beer here.  Not that you’ll ever find a good saison or Belgian pale ale in an Italian restaurant, but if God himself intervenes and places one on an Italian beer list somewhere, spring for it.  Superb.

The beer:

Could be sourer.

Monk’s Cafe is a relatively recent entry in the Birmingham market, brought in by the local Budweiser distributor.  Which is a good sign.  Unfortunately, it’s a bit hard to find.  I was talking to the beer buyer at Whole Foods and he informed me he had some “in the back.”  He couldn’t keep it out on the shelf because some scoundrels were slyly putting them in the mixed six packs (which sell for a flat price no matter what beer you put in them).  Which wouldn’t be such a big deal if the Monk’s Cafe didn’t sell for 3.50 per bottle, well more than twice what any of the brands sell for that are made available for the mixed six packs.

It’s a nice little beer, but not what I’m looking for in a “sour” ale.  This one’s more sweet than sour.  Just a hint of tartness.  Which probably appeals to a lot of people who don’t really want to drink anything particularly sour.  But I find myself longing for something more intense.

That said, it has a fair amount in common with a sweet red wine, and as such it pairs nicely with Italian food.  Defintely a bit of a grape vibe going on in there.  Tonight wasn’t a particularly good judge of the pairing because these leftovers weren’t so hot.  It was as if a lot of flavor drained out into the ether.  But it was enough to get a sense that this would be worth trying again, with some really good, fresh Italian pasta.

I’ll get around to that eventually.

Not actual DFH beer.

Yes, a repeat of the beer style and food style from last night.  It was such a winner, and I was in the mood for pasta.

This is the same homebrew that Doug recently paired.  Highly phenolic, fruity and spicy.  Close to four years old, but this is a style that ages very well.

You, too, can clean out your fridge and make something tasty!

The pasta was a chance to clear some stuff out of the fridge while still creating an excellent meal.  We had a little left in a jar of vodka sauce, a little alfredo, and a little sour cream that all needed to be cleared out.  Plus some italian dressing seasoning, a can of diced tomatoes, the remaining cloves in a head of garlic, and some ground beef.  Also, half a bag of shredded mozzarella and half a bag of a blend of parmesan cheeses.

My preference would have been to put this with penne, but we only had a few scant noodles of that sitting in the bottom of a box.  So I poured that in but had to add a lot of macaroni to fill things out.  After it was all cooked, I put it in a casserole dish and topped with all the cheese and baked for 20 minutes until the cheese was lightly browned.

Good results on the pasta, and again, a Belgian strong dark went nicely.  Yum.

Doing my part to save the planet by recycling pics.

The last time I attempted a pairing with one of these pizzas, it was an unmitigated disaster.  This time, however, I was working off the recent experiences of one “Doug,” Beerlicious contributor.  Doug had a good experience pairing up a Belgian strong dark with Italian food, so I figured that was a good direction to go with this tomato and pesto heavy meal.

See the above-linked post for more details on the pizza, but the dominant flavors are from the tomato sauce, pesto, and mozzarella.  And indeed, it all worked rather well with this Belgian strong dark.

17 years of perfection, guys. Cheers.

The beer was remarkable.  Burnt toffee, plum, raisin, and — call me crazy — I was getting some whiskey flavors.  A little vanilla from some oak?  Definitely some liquor flavors in there and some alcohol bite.  A really marvelous brew.

Definitely on the malty end of the spectrum, not hoppy at all… kind of like the doppelbock, which bombed next to this same pizza.   But while the doppelbock was the epitome of unadulterated, thick malty richness, BSDs have tremendous amounts of flavor coming from yeast, alcohol, and often Belgian candi syrup.  Those flavors overwhelm the subtle contributions of the likes of munich and vienna malts.

And among Belgian-style beers, few do them better than Canadian Unibroue.  Those guys have a tremendous world class lineup.  And the dark fruity, toffee, whiskey-like flavors of Unibroue 17 were excellent with pizza.    Some higher class Italian pairings with BSDs are definitely in my future.

Simple and succulent

I wasn’t overly psyched about this pairing prior to sitting down for dinner, but when the mood hits for a Belgian Strong Dark Ale, you have to seize it.  Actually, it turned out that the aged homebrew was a nice addition to the otherwise simple meal of parmesan crusted chicken breast and spinach and mushroom risotto.  The risotto came from a box, so it was a little salty, and the spinach was a nice non-box addition.  The parmesan chicken was fried in a pan with an olive-oil and butter mixture.  The chicken itself was perfectly cooked an juicy.  As for the beer, imagine candied cherries and treacle, molasses, and alcohol.  The pairing reminded me of a nice red wine with cheesy Italian food.  Generally I don’t like beer with Italian food, so perhaps a Belgian Strong Dark would fit the bill sometime.  In this case, the estery and pleasantly phenolic beer was a nice contrast to the flavorful chicken, spinach, and risotto.  The sugary drink was a special treat on the side which I enjoyed immensely.  I’d say it earned seven letters out of eleven on a scale of zero to beerlicious.