Ever ordered a dish off a menu at a restaurant or café and found yourself thinking, “I could make that”?

Well, InterWined did last weekend, while sitting outside Carluccio’s, the popular Italian café chain, and trying to make the most of the sporadic sunshine that fell along Market Square near London’s Oxford Street. The dish was a simple Emilia-Romagna-inspired serving of parmesan cheese with balsamic vinegar.

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Each Friday, InterWined.com pairs one great wine with one great meal and publishes the results along with the recipe in a little feature it likes to call ‘Blow the Bank’.

This week, ‘Blow the Bank’ brings you InterWined’s Own Pear Pithivier.

With so much religious observation last week, InterWined thought it was time for a little secular celebration and decided on the seemingly areligious little French pithivier. At least, that was the intention, until InterWined remembered its other name — la Galette des Roisor cake of the kings.

In other words, the exotic — indeed urbane and cosmopolitan sounding — pithivier is in fact good old, provincial, Catholic king cake made to commemorate three kings’ day and the epiphany.

And, while it might not look like the multi-coloured king cake of New Orleans’ Mardi Gras fame, the two are essentially one and the same.

So, so much for that idea…

The good news is, religious or not, InterWined’s Own Pear Pithivier is a great way to end the week, especially one marked by rain, cloud, wine, snow, hail, and a hint of sunshine. Who says it only rains in England?

Matching the weather and the pithivier is the 2005 Maculan Torcolato, made from 85% Vespaiola, 10% Garganega, and 5% Tocai, (13.5%), £16.99 from Oddbins. A mix of honey, fruit, sugar, acid and wood (thanks to French oak barrel aging), the wine is one of the prides of the Maculan winery, having won numerous awards since the 1970s. Like the best dessert wines, the Toroclato avoids any cloying or sickly sweetness. Exhibiting an excellent balance it’s simple, clean, and unassuming.

According to the Oddbins Web site, the Maculan Toroclato is perfect with almonds — and InterWined agrees. So, sit back and enjoy a glass of a great Italian dessert wine with a pear and almond pudding fit for a king.

Click on the post to view and download the recipe

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Each Friday, InterWined.com pairs one great wine with one great meal and publishes the results along with the recipe in a little feature it likes to call ‘Blow the Bank’.

Two weeks ago, I told the story of the aspiring journalist keen on the details of InterWined’s copyright and how much credit she would have to give to use the wine reviews and recommendations that appear on the site in her publication. Now, InterWined.com could dismiss her comments as ones made under the influence of several glasses wine (which they were), but they raise a very interesting question.

In the age of hyperlinks and trackbacks, embeds and torrents, when is it stealing?

So far so Carrie Bradshaw…right?

The question is an especially poignant one for food writers.

As regular readers of this feature will know, it was the attempt to answer this very question that ultimately prevented ‘Blow the Bank’ from sharing the recipe for Slow-Cooked Sweet & Sour Lamb from Greg and Lucy Malouf’s Saha cookbook without the authors’ permission, but allowed it to publish so many recipes from some the Web’s best food blogs.

The question isn’t just one of credit and permission; it’s also one of degree. Numerous food blogs and cookbooks include recipes adapted from ones found elsewhere. But whose to say how much of an adaptation must take place until it becomes your own. Does simply changing raisins to sultanas count? How about 100g to 150g or turning a loaf made with sweet potato and spinach into a muffin made with sweet potato and apple?

And what about, following one recipe, such as the basic omelette recipe in James Peterson’s Cooking to make another, like InterWined’s Own Creamy Lancashire Omelette with Spinach & Prosciutto?

Omelettes can prove tricky to prepare, but Peterson’s multiple recipes are incredibly informative, helpful, and visually easy-to-follow. The key to success is a well-buttered pan. The key to a great pairing (perhaps one of InterWined’s best) is good quality dessert wine.

That’s right — dessert wine. Regardless of its name, it needn’t be confined to desserts and puddings. In fact, paired with InterWined’s Own Creamy Lancashire Omelette with Spinach & Prosciutto, the 2005 Maculan Dindarello (12%) from Oddbins for £8.49 is close to perfection, its sweetness finding an excellent balance in the flavour of the egg and butter and saltiness of the prosciutto.

As described by the wineseller at Oddbins, the Dindarello, made of 100% Muscato by one of the Veneto regions most respected winemakers, also has a strong smell of nutmeg on the nose. There’s some honey on the palate, but not as much as some other dessert wines and only a little hint of fruit. Mostly, it’s the smell of nutmeg that wins your attention: 9.0 with InterWined’s omelette (8.8 with bakery-bought black current cheesecake).

InterWined’s Own Recipe in Full

Creamy Lancashire Omelette with Spinach & Prosciutto

Click on the post to view and download the recipe

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