Pizza and wine, here are the best pairings

An unexpected combination: pizza and wine

Although we Italians are used to accompanying pizza with a good beer, a very successful pairing with this famous Italian food is with another excellence of our territory: wine .

There are some “rules” for choosing the right bottle of wine when enjoying pizza, at a restaurant or at home.

How to make a great pizza at home

Before you pop open the perfect bottle of wine to accompany your pizza, here’s how to prepare a dough worthy of the best pizzeria.

In fact, more and more people are trying their hand at making pizza at home: kneading becomes a moment of sharing with family and children and having fun with the toppings is a real display of imagination.

First of all, it is essential to choose the right flours, which is why it can be a good solution to create mixes with different flours, experimenting with different consistencies and flavors.

At this point, you can start kneading (better if several hours in advance, to ensure excellent leavening and therefore a more digestible dough) by dissolving the brewer’s yeast in a glass of warm water and leaving it to rest for at least five minutes before adding it to the flour.

These minutes are essential to help the dough rise perfectly, which will then need to be worked vigorously by hand for at least ten minutes (unless you have a mixer).

After the dough has risen, you will need to roll out the dough and leave it to rest in the pan for at least a quarter of an hour so that it continues to rise.

Then, you can move on to the seasoning you prefer and finally to cooking: the electric oven at home must already be at a very high temperature.

Once your pizza is ready, you can move on to the perfect wine to accompany it.

Pizza and wine: the best pairings

The most classic of pizzas, the Margherita , can be enjoyed with a delicate and elegant white wine like Chardonnay which manages to enhance the flavour of the tomato and mozzarella.

The marinara pizza , characterised by the strong flavour of oregano and garlic, goes well with a strong red wine like Barbera d’Asti .

For more topped pizzas such as the capricciosa or the quattro stagioni , it is better to opt for a fragrant and structured wine that can tone down the strong flavour of the many ingredients (artichokes, ham, olives): the ideal bottle of wine is the red Sangiovese di Puglia .

The spiciness of the salami in the pizza alla diavola can be sweetened with a glass of fruity and robust wine such as Amatone della Vapolicella while the pizza with sausage and broccoli goes perfectly with a bitterish wine suited to the flavour of these vegetables: Bonarda dell’Oltrepò Pavese .

The ham and mushrooms , with its delicate and autumnal flavour, pairs perfectly with a full-bodied and tasty red wine like Barbaresco .

Moving from cured meats and meat to cheeses, the classic four-cheese pizza is perfect to accompany with a classic Brut that goes wonderfully with Grana Padano, Gorgonzola, Scamorza and Fontina, the protagonists of this pizza.

Neapolitan or Roman pizza , topped with tasty ingredients such as tomato, salted anchovies, oregano, extra virgin olive oil and capers, requires a wine that tones down its flavour, such as a fragrant and intense white, such as Pinot Grigio delle Venezie .

While the Pugliese , seasoned with onions, black olives, tomato and mozzarella, classic ingredients of Mediterranean cuisine, can only go well with a red wine from the Apulian land, the Primitivo di Puglia IGT .

Finally, the delicious and light pizzas with vegetables, such as the ortolana , are perfectly paired with fine white wines.