June 10, 2009 8:05 pm

The Dregs: Cooking With Old Wine

I definitely subscribe to that whole "French women don't get fat" lifestyle mumbo jumbo and have ever since I became old enough to choose a self-help book by which to live. I like to imagine myself riding a bike down a Parisian street in red lipstick and cropped pants, enviably slim even though the basket of my bike is filled with butter-laced pastries and slabs of duck fat. I have no bike at the moment and croissants go straight to my hips, but I try to practice the spirit of the "French woman" hypothesis by eating good food with friends and drinking a glass of wine every night.

While this lifestyle has yet to present many problems, one arises every so often—I cannot finish a bottle of wine if I drink moderately, leaving me with piles questionable half-bottles. Sometimes, I weigh my options. If it's been one of those days, I drink it (which I probably shouldn't admit on a website dedicated to eating well). But, for the evenings when I'm not gripped by the need to drown my problems, I've started to collect recipes that call for wine.

If you cook, you'll already know some prime places to add a splash of wine
—deglazing a pan after searing meat, finishing off a ragu, macerating fruit. But for every conventional use, there is an equally unusual one. Below are some of my favorite recipes that call for wine. Leave a comment below and let us know how you use the dregs.

1. Escabeche

Escabeche is one of those dishes that appear in most continental European cuisines and the cuisines of all the places they colonized. In Jamaica they call it Escovitch, in Italy it is Savoro and the North Africans know it as Scabetche. Whatever the name, the dish consists of some meat (normally chicken or fish) that is fried or lightly poached then soaked in an acidic marinade overnight before it is served. While there are as many variations as there are stars in the sky, the marinade typically includes white wine. My current favorite riff on this dish is the quail escabeche from this month's Gourmet Magazine.

2. Sauced Figs

This recipe from Serious Eats came from a woman with a similar conundrum to my own. Her solution? Throw a handful of dried figs in wine and water, add a cinnamon stick and sugar and let the wine reduce into a syrup. I especially like this recipe over vanilla ice cream.

3. Chocolate Merlot Cake

World-renowned cookbook author, culinary expert and founder of the La Varenne Cooking School in France, Anne Willan, published a book devoted exclusively to using vino in your meals. This is among my favorite recipes from her classic guide Cooking With Wine.

4. Finishing Sauce for Red Meats

Behind the Burner CEO, Divya Gugnani developed a finishing sauce for meat that is as tasty as it is simple. Just combine one part soy sauce with one part red wine vinegar and whatever leftover wine you have around the house—red or white. After you've combined the ingredients, splash it on whatever meat you're cooking right before removing it from the heat.

5. Risotto Bianco with Black Truffles

Chef Joey Campanaro has come up with one of the most decadent uses I can imagine for an old bottle of white wine. His recipe for creamy white risotto studded with black truffles on Behind the Burner epitomizes luxury. But if eaten in large quantities, it might even make a French woman fat.

—Cecilia Estreich

— Written by Cecilia Estreich

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