Few days ago, Illy and I tasted a new wine. We talked about it many times and we finally bought a bottle and decided to drink it.
The wine was Anthìlia, an Italian white wine produced by Donnafugata, from Sicily, one of the most important wineries in Italy. The smell immediatly grabbed our attention, it reminded us some flowers and citrus of southern Italy. I poured the wine in the glasses and the color was pale straw yellow. Then we tasted it and we were very satisfied about our choice. In my humble opinion this is a very good wine.
And the food pairings? Anthìlia is good with white meats, every kind of fish and fresh vegetables or everything together like the experimental paella cooked by Illy.
I am curious to know if someone of you has ever tasted this wine.
In a sunny and warm Sunday of June, with a good supply of fresh season’s vegetables from our countryside, we decided we wanted to experiment paella.
It’s a typical and famous Spanish dish and, maybe unconsciously, we dedicated it to Spain that later that night would win the European Football Championship, beating Germany 1-0…
I first heated 4 table spoons of extra-virgin olive oil in the wok, then added chopped vegetables (1 onion, 4 green pimientos, some French beans, 1 carrot, 1 tomato) and let them steam, stirring occasionally.
After 10-15 minutes I added diced chicken breast and then few minutes later few prawns and stirred all together, before covering again to steam meat and fish.
After 10 minutes I added 2 cups of ‘vialone nano’ rice, a typical rice variety cultivated in northern Italy and particularly in a part of Verona.
After 10-15 minutes I added salt, pepper and saffron powder (which is ruby red, but as soon as you mix it with food, it becomes yellow).
At that point it really started to look like a real paella! The typical yellow color, the mix of vegetables with chicken and prawns, the typical saffron smell….
Manu and I looked at the wok and immediately our mind went to Spain, “Imagine to be there now on holiday…”
Now, our paella was almost ready (rice needs to cook another 10-15 minutes until having absorbed all the fluid while stirring occasionally), so it was time to open the bottle of wine and to drink our first glass in front of the window, from which we have a nice view on the hills.
The wine dedicated to our paella was Anthilia of Donnafugata, a delicious fruity and full-bodied white wine from Sicily, that we recommend to all of you to drink in a relaxed summer day and with fresh Mediterranean food.
While we were sipping our first glass of wine, our paella came ready and so we could finally enjoy our lunch. Let’s say that our first paella ended up as a very Italian paella, absolutely without pretending to be a real Spanish one, but very similar to it!
