And here we are, ready to face a new challenge: home-made lasagna. All the ingredients are rigorously homemade: pasta, bechamel sauce, ragù. The assembly can only give a satisfying result, even superlative.
And what do we match? Lasagna is a rich, fatty, very tasty and succulent dish. And with lasagna you can combine full-bodied reds, beautiful tough, with a certain tannic structure like a Brunello, a Barbaresco, a Nebbiolo, a Barolo, and going down towards the south of the Italian peninsula also a Montepulciano, a Sagrantino, an Aglianico , a Primitivo, a Nero d’Avola … But today none of this.
A wine that is recommended for accompanying lasagna is Lambrusco. Why? Because Lambrusco thanks to its effervescence it can “compete” with the fatness of the dish. In fact, in this type of food-wine combination we are talking of matching by contrast: it means that the sensations of softness given by the food (precisely by the fatness and succulence of the lasagna) find a perfect balance with the hardness of the wine (such as minerality or acidity) which in the specific case of Lambrusco is enhanced by its sparkling character.
And here we are tasting: this Lambrusco Lancillotto is part of the DOC Grasparossa di Castelvetro variety, produced by Barbolini company in the heart of the splendid home town of Lambrusco, Modena. The color is a deep and brilliant purple red with its violet foam. The aroma is typical of wild strawberry and black currant; the taste is dry, with excellent freshness and good sapidity, always with an intense fruity sensation.
The combination with lasagna is very pleasant and its low alcohol content (about 11% vol) also favors its drinkability.
I don’t know why, but when I drink Lambrusco I have that feeling of cheerful youth, as when I am with lively and carefree kids full of desire to live and without too many complications.
This also helps in a context such as the current quarantine isolation.