Sipping Lambrusco in strawberry season (#ItalianFWT)

Strawberry season is a special time of year.

Here in Central Pennsylvania, strawberries ripen in late May to early June. For two to three weeks, strawberries play a starring role at every roadside stand and farmers market. 

Hand-picked local strawberries are the best. It’s worth a few aches and pains to crouch in the strawberry patch and pinch berries directly off their stalks. Once home and on my kitchen counter, they don’t last long. I gobble up fistfuls of their juicy goodness every chance I get and toss them liberally into salads, smoothies, desserts, and just about anything, really.

So, when the Italian Food, Wine and Travel (#ItalianFWT) group chose Lambrusco as the featured wine for June, I had to find a way to include strawberries.

And I did – challenging though it was.

What is Lambrusco?

Isn’t Lambrusco that cheap, cloyingly sweet wine that showed up at picnics and barbecues? At one time, yes.

Sparkling Lambrusco became so popular in the 1980s that to satisfy demand, producers switched from making the wine through bottle fermentation (the traditional method) to bulk fermentation in large steel tanks (the Charmat method). 

Lambrusco is actually a collective term for a group of grape varieties. More than 60 Lambrusco varieties have been identified so far. Lambrusco vines are grown in several Italian wine regions, but they are best known for producing the sparkling red wines of Emilia-Romagna. 

A fertile region spanning almost the entire width of northern Italy, Emilia-Romagna is one of the country’s most prolific wine regions – more than 136,000 acres were under vine in 2010. It is also among Italy’s oldest wine regions, with a viticultural heritage dating back as far as the seventh century BC. Vines were introduced here by the Etruscans and later adopted by the Romans, who used the Via Aemilia road (after which the region is named) to transport wine between cities.

The grapes used for centuries in Emilia-Romagna are of the Vitis labrusca species, rather than the Vitis vinifera used for international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot.

A large percentage of these grapes are used to produce sparkling Lambrusco wines, either frizzante or spumante, in styles ranging from dry (secco) to semi-dry to sweet. The highest quality wines are from the five Lambrusco DOCs (sub-regions): Grasparossa di Castelvetro, Salamino di Santa Croce, Lambrusco di Sorbara, Lambrusco di Modena, and Lambrusco Reggiano. 

Sources:
https://www.wine-searcher.com/grape-246-lambrusco
http://www.montcalmwines.com/our-wines/italian-wines/emilia-romagna

Lambrusco and strawberries

To pair with dry Lambrusco, I had to prepare my strawberries on the savory side.

As it happens, my thoughtful spouse brought home a one-pound basket of fresh ricotta from Caputo Brothers Creamery, a truly world-class Italian cheesemaking treasure right here in the heart of Central Pennsylvania.

My thoughts turned immediately to lasagna, but then I remembered picking up an easy recipe from Caputo Brothers for baked ricotta. Why not liberate the ricotta from all those carbs? 

Caputo Brothers Baked Ricotta Recipe
Preheat oven to 500°F.
Oil bottom of baking tray.
Turn one-pound block of ricotta onto oiled tray.
Bake at least 20 minutes, or until ricotta is golden-brown.
Top with favorite jam or chutney.
Serve warm or at room temperature.

I found two toppings different enough from one another to provide contrast – a chorizo jam and a strawberry balsamic chutney. For the wine, I purchased a non-vintage, frizzante Rinaldini Reggiano Lambrusco DOC .

Tasting notes: Deep, purple-red in color. Black cherry and plum on the nose, followed by eucalyptus on the palate. Medium acidity and finish. Medium body.

Both toppings were lovely with the mild ricotta. The Reggiano loved the pork-sausage chorizo and had enough “berryness” to handle the strawberry chutney. But… I wasn’t convinced, so I returned to the local state store to pick up a different wine – a 2016 Zucchi Rito Lambrusco di Sorbara DOC.

Tasting notes: Bright pink. Strawberry, raspberry and flowers on the nose. Peach, sour apple and flowers on the palate. Medium+ acidity, medium finish, medium body.

I no longer had ricotta for a pairing. Instead, I created appetizers by placing the strawberry chutney alongside goat cheese on toasted baguettes (as the recipe indicates). My opinion? I still preferred the chorizo jam! These Lambrusco wines gotta have their pork!

Hope you can join our Twitter chat on Lambrusco this Saturday, June 1, at 11 am ET, when the following bloggers share their insights. Follow by using the hashtag, #ItalianFWT. See you there!

• Camilla from the Culinary Adventures with Camilla will be featuring “Every Wine Deserves a Second Look: Warmed Brie with Mulberry Chutney + Cleto Chiarli Lambrusco di Sorbara Vecchia Modena 2018″
• Jill at L’Occasion shares “La Collina Biodynamic Bubbles — Lambrusco!
• Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm highlights “Lambrusco? Really??” 
• Deanna from Asian Test Kitchen will showcase “Top 5 Fast Food Pairings with Lambrusco”
• Jeff at Food Wine Click will share “Lambrusco Shines with Red Fizz and Fun“
• Cindy of Grape Experiences will feature “Italian Old-School Classics: Easy Drinking Lambrusco with Spicy Vegetarian Pensa Romana“
• Marcia of the Joy of Wine will be highlighting “Lambrusco – The Star of Emilia-Romagna” 
• Pinny of Chinese Food and Wine Pairings  is focused on “Picnicking with Scarpetta Frico Lambrusco”
• Lauren at The Swirling Dervish will be sharing “Revisiting Lambrusco with Francesco Vezzelli Rive dei Ciliegi”
• Nicole with Somm’s Table shares “Cooking to the Wine: Pezzuoli Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro with Antipasto Pizza“
• Gwendolyn of Wine Predator will be showcasing “Bugno Martino’s Organic Lambrusco Defy Expectations”
• Susannah of Avvinare will be featuring “Sparkling Lambrusco from Vitivinicola Rota”
• Our host Jennifer of Vino Travels is sharing “Over 150 years of Dedication to Lambrusco with Cleto Chiarli”