A Healthier Lifestyle with Mediterranean Recipes and French Wine Pairings
Summary of the Mediterranean recipes and French wines pairings detailed in this article
6 minutes to read the whole article
- Spanish Tumbet recipe along with a Minervois C.D.O. This recipe is based on vegetables ingredients cooked each one by one and then gathered in a gratin dish finalising the cooking in an oven.
- Sicilian style sardines recipe and a pairing suggested together with a French Riviera wine Coteaux d’Aix en Provence white C.D.O. This dish associates Corynth raisins to stuff the sardines and is cooked in an oven.
- Turkish Imam Bayildi recipe with eggplants, tomatoes and onion paired with a Saint Chinian South of France C.D.O.
The Mediterranean diet is considered one of the healthiest eating patterns in the world. It emphasizes seasonal fruits and vegetables, healthy fats from olive oil, whole grains such as whole-wheat bread and pasta, legumes such as lentils and chickpeas, and seafood, including sardines, mackerel, and salmon. Nuts such as walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, and pistachios are also an important part of this dietary pattern.
Incorporating these ingredients into your everyday diet can support cardiovascular health and may help reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, and some neurodegenerative diseases.
Beyond its health benefits, Mediterranean food culture offers delicious traditional recipes that have evolved in a region where winegrowing dates back to ancient Greek times. In this article, we’ll explore three recipes that are as enjoyable as they are wholesome, along with French wine pairings that bring out the best in each dish.
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Spanish Tumbet with a Minervois AOC Wine Pairing
This Spanish recipe shows you how to turn simple vegetables into a delicious, wholesome dish. You’ll also learn how to layer the ingredients in a baking dish and create a flavorful gratin, complete with a French wine pairing that offers an enhanced taste of Spanish culinary tradition.
Recipe for 6 persons
Ingredients:
- 1 garlic clove
- 14.1 oz of tomatoes
- 14.1 oz of eggplants
- 14.1 oz of potatoes
- 14.1 oz of red bell peppers
- 0.08 gal of olive oil
- Thyme and bay leaves
- Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 285 °F
Plunge the tomatoes into boiling water for 1 minute to loosen the skins. Then peel and seed them, and cut them into large pieces.
In a frying pan put 2 tablespoons of olive oil and let it heat up. Than put the tomatoes in the frying pan and let it cook over low heat for 25 minutes. The purpose here is to make a tomato sauce. When half cooked add the thyme and bay leaves.
Wash the eggplants and dry it. Cut it into medium thickness slices. Peel the potatoes and clean it. Dry the potatoes to cut it into medium-thick-slices.
In two separate frying pans, put a little olive oil and cook in the first frying pan the potatoes during 20 minutes by turning them. Make the same 20 minutes cooking of the eggplants slices and flip it regularly, in the second frying pan. Add salt and pepper.
Wash the red bell peppers. Cut the stem and take the white membranes out along with the seeds. Then dice the flesh into small dices. With a third frying pan cook it with olive oil for 15 minutes.
In a baking dish arrange the vegetables in the following order : first the potatoes, then the eggplants, then the red bell peppers. Once all the layers are in place, cover the vegetables with the tomato sauce.
Put the baking dish in the oven for 15 minutes. Please do cook the vegetable in different pan initially before the oven step as it is part of the tasting result that the vegetables are cooked separatly in the beginning.
Serve immediatly in the gratin dish.
You can serve this gratin with lamb cutlets and pair it with a Minervois C.D.O. The flavor of thyme and laurel which you can often find in this wine will be a perfect overlapping with aromatic ingredients of this recipe. The garnacha grape will pair nicely with tomatoes and red bell peppers thanks to its black fruit features and its round texture will match the melting flesh of the vegetables. The Syrah in the wine will bring pepper notes and violet flavor making the dish hightened with complementary flower notes. In addition the silky tannins of this grape variety will taste in accordance with cooked vegetables flesh and its medium thickness texture.
The Sicilian style sardines recipe and a French Riviera wine
This recipe will make you travel in Sicilia and provide you with a cheap fish dish. You will discover how to make the most of your sardines in a quick and simple way. You will enjoy this marvelous food with a white wine from French Riviera and you will find the pairing secrets and hint to make fish a real and affordable delight.
Recipe for 6 persons
Ingredients :
- 2 dozens of sardines emptied, descaled and the backbone removed by the fishmonger.
- 1,8 Oz of dried Corynth raisins
- 1,8 Oz of bread crumbs
- 5 table spoons of olive oil
- 1,8 Oz of almonds
- 12 laurel leaves
- Thyme and rosemay
- Salt and Pepper
Once emptied, descaled and the backbone removed, clean the sardines and then dry it with a paper towel or tea towel.
Soak the raisins in lukewarm water. Wet the bread crumbs with two table spoons of olive oil and let it sop.
Heat the oven at 408 °F
Finely chop the almonds. Drain the raisins. Combine raisins, bread crumbs, and almonds. Add salt and pepper. Mix together up to getting a homogeneous stuffing.
Stuff the sardines with the mixture.
Put the sardines in a baking dish. Put the laurel leaves in between the sardines.
Use a kitchen brush to cover each sardine with olive oil.
Put the baking dish in the oven and let it cook for 20 minutes.
With this sunny dish we will choose a sunny wine from South of France in Provence region. A Coteaux d’Aix en Provence will make complementarily fruity notes with the corynth raisins and almonds with a flavor of cristalized fruits and ripe yellow flesh fruits. Honey and hazelnuts notes of the wine will pair as an overlapping effect on the dish ingredients such as almonds. To go further on the provencal aromatic herbs in the recipe the wine will bring other typical note of this region as pine resin which tree we can often found in the landscape of the French riviera in the middle of guarigue filled with thyme and rosemarry. Finally the round texture of the wine will go perfectly with the flesh of the sardines and soften its salty features.
Loving these Mediterranean vibes? Download my free guide to the best fish appetizer recipes and French wine pairings.
The Turkish traditional Imam Bayildi and Saint Chinian C.D.O
This recipe will unveil the art of cooking vegetables and serve it cold for an incredible delight as a starter. To highlight the flavor of this dish a wine from South of France as the Saint Chinian will be a perfect match. The recipe is quiet simple, affordable and is very fond so you can trick people who are not so much into eggplantss to actually enjoy it with this new way of serving it cold. Definitly worth a try that will change your perception of eggplants.
Ingredients for 6 persons :
- 6 medium sized eggplants
- 4 big onions
- 3 big tomatoes
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 coffee spoon of ground suggar
- 5 table spoons of olive oil
- A small bunch of parsley
Clean the eggplants. Cut it in two part in the length and put it in salted water for an hour.
During this hour, peel the onions and slice it in half rings. Clean the tomatoes and slice it in little dices. Peel the garlic and cut it into thin slices.
Combine the onions, the tomatoes and the garlic together with the suggar and salt and knead it.
Dry the eggplants and spread the stuffing on each half eggplant by pressing a little to make it stick with surface.
Put the eggplant in a deep frying pan, add 0,07 gal of water and the olive oil. Put a pressure weight on the eggplants with a plate or a lid and cover the deep frying pan.
Cook it for 5 minutes on hight heat, and the 30 minutes on medium heat.
Chop the parsley
Put the eggplants on a service plate and sprinkle with parsley. Serve this dish cold.
To match this cold vegetables dish we will choose a Saint Chinian C.D.O from Southern Languedoc Roussillon region. The flavor of dried figs and plum will bring a slight sweet and sour touch to the tasting which will definitly match the tomatoes in the recipe. As olive is a typical mediterranean ingredient it will pair fantastically with the taste of eggplants melted with onion and tomatoes,note that all these flavor are part of a famous pizza’s ingredients as the Melanzana, add pepper and cloves spices with it and you will get a typical italian flavor thanks to the association of the Saint Chinian and the dish. To give a subtle and fresh mouthfeel the notes of violet, jasmine and dried rose will highthen this dish. Finally with melted tannins and a bit of freshness of the wine it will come to underline the eggplants creamy texture thanks to a slight acidity and velvety mouthfeel of the wine.
If you prefer balanced mouthfeel and intense spice aromas
If you prefer velvety textures and fragrant aromas
If you prefer balanced mouthfeel and smooth aromas
Mas Champart Saint Chinian Cuvée Caussedu Bousquet 2023
Chateau de Ciffre Saint Chinian 2021 from Lorgeril Winery
Domaine Canet Valette Saint Chinian Cuvée Antonyme 2019
We can make out that all the wine paired with these mediterranean dishes come from the South of France as the French riviera or Languedoc Roussillon. We can say we have a geographical tendency of overlapping based on food and wine bathed by the sun. This flavor wedding is historical as the first vienyards largely cultivated comes from middlesee and mediterranan region when the greek started to expand wine culture and crafting. The dishes recipes and cooking habits developed in the same environment where the wine were produced. We do have a real cultural tradition endorsing the wine associations suggested in this article. With moderate use these food and drinks can expand lifespan and keep you in good shape. I hope you will enjoy these recipes and wine moment recomended as much as your body will thank you for trying on such cuisine and delightment.
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