At Ingredients Cafe’s August wine-pairing dinner on Tuesday, August 23, the best surprises came in small packages. With tomatoes at their peak, Chefs Ben and Tony gave the versatile fruit a starring role in all five courses – stretching the bounds of what one expects a tomato to do in a meal. Each course was like a little gift of summer.

To complement the dishes, Sheila Stewart of The Wine Merchants chose wines from Italy, Australia and New Zealand. She said tomatoes are challenging to pair with wine because of the fruit’s high acidity. Rather than try to counter the sharpness, she chose wines that would bolster the zing.

The first course was seafood bisque served in large white bowls. Skewers were balanced on top, loaded with seared prawns and hunks of Kost Family Farm heirloom tomatoes. The tomatoes were as meaty as portabella mushrooms and surprisingly fruity. When dipped in the bisque, they acted like a lemon accent to the subtle soup.

Stewart poured a tart 2004 Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. It had almost a grapefruit tang which enhanced the light flavor of the shrimp.

The Wine Merchant's Sheila Stewart pours the first glass

With a wine from one of the oldest wineries in Australia, tasting the second course was like stepping into the past. The chefs produced mini hatboxes of savory black currant bread pudding topped with decadent slices of pan-seared foie gras. One could almost hear Victorian gas lights hissing as the patrons savored these old-time treats.

The 2002 Leasingham “Bin 61” Shiraz (Stewart said the original vines were planted by penal colony guards around 1898) tasted like a mouthful of berries itself, so it melded perfectly with the bread pudding. A splash of modernity came in the accompanying orange border of tomato fondue and a garnet red drop of port wine reduction. Their sour flavors brought a sharpness to the rich pudding and foie gras.

A decadent treat: Foie gras, black currant bread pudding, tomato fondue and port wine reduciton

If the Leasingham wine took us back in time 100 years, the Capezzana wine served with the third course could very well have taken us back nearly 2000 years. The Italian winery that produced the 2002 Barco Reale di Carmignano has a storied past. According to its website, the land was first decreed as a wine and olive producing entity under the rule of Charlemagne around 800 A.D. Archaeological finds, however, show that the Romans and Etruscans were making wine there long before that.

It was served with a simple plate of ricotta gnocchi glistening with truffled olive oil and tomato confit. The chefs replaced the potatoes found in regular gnocchi with ricotta cheese that they made in-house. The pasta were the size of pebbles, and dense and tender on the inside, just like the cheese. The cherry tomatoes, from Twin Pine Farm in Scandia, were about the same size as the gnocchi, but after being slow roasted their insides had turned completely into juice.

The Barco Reale shares a lot of the sweet characteristics of chianti wine. Paired with the gnocchi, it added sugar to the rich pasta, and brought out the sweeter tones of the tomato.

Ricotta gnocchi with truffled olive oil and tomato confit

If you shake a gift, you can sometimes guess what is inside, however it’s not until you unwrap it that you know for sure. The fourth course held two mysteries for me that were only revealed when the plate was set before me. The roasted sea bass was accompanied by tomato crudo and maxim potato.

Ah ha. Tomato crudo is similar to what is served on bruschetta – tomato, basil, olive oil and garlic. It was very fresh and enlivened the dill swathed bass. The potatoes were essentially quick fried paper-thin slices, and they were salty and warm.

Stewart poured a spicy 2003 Lawson’s Dry Hills Pinot Noir from New Zealand for this course. It added the right amount of tang to the sweet tomatoes and bass.   

For the finale, Chefs Ben and Tony turned a common southern side dish into an exquisite farewell. A pinwheel of fried green tomatoes surrounded a disk of frozen goat cheese parfait, which was topped with a cherry red dollop of tomato jam. My dinner companion and I cleaned our plates so not a drop of this serving was wasted.

Stewart made another wonderful choice for the wine: a Ceretto “Santo Stefano” Moscato D’Asti. It was sweet and slightly effervescent, which, again, bolstered the sweet/sour flavor of the tomatoes so they had more depth. I can assure you we didn’t waste a drop of that gift, either. 

Next month, expect more surprises at the wine-pairing dinner, as the harvest season gets into full swing.

Fried green tomatoes with goat cheese parfait, tomato jam and balsamic reduction