Red wine pasta

I wanted to have some wine with my tapenade chicken dinner last night, so I opened a bottle of red knowing that I’ll have to finish it, somehow, by today as I’m going on a business trip tomorrow. And since I don’t feel like drinking 2/3 bottle of red wine today, I thought that I’d cook something with it.

I didn’t feel like having any braised beef brisket (too much work and time) or poached pears (although I have two pears at home but I could bring them with me on the flight). Then I found this red wine spaghetti recipe on the internet in a 1998 article in The New York Times by Mark Bittman that seemed easy enough and quick to prepare.

I made some tweaks to the recipe: Instead of spaghetti, I used linguini, which turned out quite fine. I used less olive oil and butter, but I still found the pasta to be a little too greasy so I’ll probably reduce it further next time. Added more minced garlic and used (a generous amount of) Japanese shichimi (seven spice mix) instead of red pepper flakes, and served the pasta with capers which I thought added a nice tang to the dish. And I used a merlot since that was what was I had opened yesterday.

It was delicious! I had an additional (half)serving and am contemplating on having a little more after typing this.

This recipe’s a keeper 🙂