Learning Center / Wine Info / How to Pair Wine With PizzaHow to Pair Wine With PizzaPizza: a forbidden food-wine pairing?!? Unlike our impossible food-wine pairings, pizza is one of those very possible wine pairings. But not in one country: Italy. Jeremy Parzen pointed out this shocking claim in the comments of a recent post on his blog : “…no one pairs wine with pizza in Italy! I’m sorry, they just don’t…” He added later via email, “like Italians’ aversion to dairy and fish, or coffee and savory, the pizza/beer pairing is relatively sacred… they never pair pizza with wine… wine lists in Italian pizzerie are for tourists.” (Let’s hope they’re not pairing the lackluster Peroni with that pizza.) Forbidden as it may be in Italy, prove the Italians wrong and tell us what is your preferred pairing for a pizza margherita? Are you in the white, light red (Barbera, Chianti), or the full-bodied (Nero d’Avola, Shiraz, Zinfandel) camp? I prefer reds with higher acidity to cut through the protein and fat of the cheese and stand up to acidity in the the tomato.

I suppose if we really wanted an impossible food-wine pairing, there’s always deep dish pizza… This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 10:20 am and is filed under food and wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.buy wine from 1996Are you sure you want to remove this item from your Recipe Box?why can't i buy wine on amazon Don't have an account? best wine gadgets Please log in to your accountbest wine to have with thanksgiving turkey Never created a password? how much beer and wine do you buy for a wedding

I've read and accepted the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and confirm I am at least 21 years old. Already have an account? No, thanksI'm already a PureWow fan. Follow PureWow on Pinterest No, thanks I hate pretty things. Whoa: This Is the Absolute Best Wine to Pair with Pizzabest wine to have with thanksgiving turkey It’s not a pizza party without a little vino. And, sure, while lots of options stand up nicely to doughy pizza, there’s only one wine that was basically made for drinking with a cheesy, delicious pie. Meet: Lambrusco, a sparkling Italian red. (Call your girlfriend: Red wine can be sparkling, too.) Now we know what you’re thinking: Lambrusco? Isn’t it that like an overly sweet, cheap frat party favorite? But that goes for any low-budget varietal. A quality Lambrusco is light and fresh with fruity tastes (like cherry, wild strawberry and plum) balanced with a slightly dry acidity.

Put it all together—fruit-forward flavor, dryness and bubbles—and you have the ultimate wine to pair with pizza. The light bubbles contrast the doughy crust; the high acidity complements the tomato sauce; and the medium tannins balance the cheesiness. So if you’re picking up pizza tonight, grab some Lambrusco (you can get an exceptional bottle for about $16). Pizza night just got fancy.There are single ingredients that are loftier, more intensely flavored and perhaps even more exciting than pizza, but come on, few culinary amalgamations have ever been more complete and satisfying than a nice warm pizza. Acidity, sweetness and herbs in the tomato sauce, fattiness and salt in the cheese, maybe some char on the soul-calming crust, and an ocean of possibility with toppings. If you changed up the ingredients from time to time, you could live on pizza alone, and live well at that. Bread, sauce, cheese, toppings.Starting with the classic Margherita pies of Naples, pizza evolved into the nouveau vehicle that introduced the world to ham and pineapple.

From there pizza went on to become something of an elevated cuisine at times (sirloin, arugula and a sprinkle of Gorgonzola) and perfectly low-brow at others. (And there's nothing wrong with a nice taco pizza — I'm just saying.) I can't remember my first taste of this glorious and dependable food because I probably had it when even eating was new to me. It seems as though pizza was just always there. A giant, steaming, gooey, delicious pie in the sky. What a beautiful daydream. I do vividly remember the pizza that my grade school served — rectangular, soft and chewy — served on a potentially toxic polystyrene tray. No side dishes needed. If there were corn niblets or peas 'n' carrots filling the cavities next to that slice, I'm sure I didn't even notice. Like Shakespeare sort of said, the pizza was the thing.Years ago, for about nine months I crashed with a couple of buddies, one of whom I called The Pioneer for his culinary adventurism. He introduced me to a pizza place not far from where we lived that offered all kinds of wacky ingredients.

I thought of it as a carnival sideshow until I started tasting the pies he was dreaming up. Soon, with a straight face, I was ordering pizzas topped with prosciutto and peaches, among other combinations. At the time I was doing a lot of long-distance running, and a regimen like that can produce what must be the male equivalent of pregnancylike cravings. I don't think I would order a prosciutto and peaches pizza today — and not just because I have cut back on my miles. It's more because I like a heartier, more savory-style of pizza — a perfect partner for a nice glass of wine. Despite pizza's general humility, a wine accompaniment elevates it — not because wine makes meals fancier, but because wine is the best accompaniment to food that there is. Wine makes pizza even better than it is on its own. Just remember a few things, and you'll be fine.First, most pizza is salty, and a great wine quality to partner with salt is acidity. The same goes for the fattiness that the cheese brings.

Cut it with acidity in wine. Chianti, the legendary sangiovese-based red wine from Tuscany, is a classic pizza pairing for this reason. It's not too big on the body scale, and it's simpatico with tomato-based sauces. Plus it's from Italy, like pizza. But Italian pizza has become about as American as German hamburgers, so I like a nice, fruity zinfandel with my pie too.When you're pairing wine with pizza, keep it simple and use common sense. A subtle Margherita pizza would be overpowered by a huge cabernet sauvignon but not by a lighter chianti. A white pizza with seafood? Maybe a chardonnay or sauvignon blanc is in order, depending on how rich the pizza is. A rosé could work too, especially if it has good acidity and a nice complement of fruit. Always, and with pretty much everything.If your pizza is loaded with earthy mushrooms, pour a glass of the mushroom's best friend, pinot noir. If your pizza is also piled with meat, like a classic version I had recently (sausage, pepperoni, mushroom), go with a more formidable red, such as the 2013 Vento di Mare Nerello Mascalese ($12).

Full of blackberry, dark fruits and a hint of spice, this fun wine from Sicily was a great match. Another winner was the 2014 Ghost Pines Winemaker's Blend Zinfandel ($20), a California red-fruit jammy swirl with a nice kiss of vanilla. To save a little dough, go with the 2015 Our Daily Zin ($11) from California, which also brought the (organic) fruit but clocked in lower in alcohol at a reasonable 12.5 percent. On the other end of the pizza spectrum lies the quieter vegetable-focused pizza. I tried one with sun-dried tomatoes, capers, basil, mozzarella, goat cheese and olive oil, which went well with Zonin Prosecco Black Edition ($17). The brut sparkler is made of 90 percent glera and 10 percent pinot noir, and that little bit of cherry essence from the pinot noir offered a nice brightness to counter the somewhat piquant nature of the pizza's toppings. Another white winner was the 2014 Alois Lageder Pinot Bianco ($14). From northern Italy, this wine was full of fresh lemon-lime, green apples and minerality.