Vincotto/vino cotto/sapa

There's a lot of vincotto or vino cotto here in this bowl, but normally you get it in tiny expensive bottles. Like the one that some kind person gave me some time ago. I have had it for a while but at last I am going to use it.

Mind you the bottle is open so I have obviously used it before which creates a problem as I don't know how much is in there. It's not a transparent glass bottle. It's heavy, but I suspect that this comes from the bottle itself, so I am now thinking that, to hell with the expense I am going to have to buy another bottle whatever the cost. I just hope David is not standing over me when I do or he'll have a fit.

But hey it's for lunch for some friends on Sunday. And he made me buy a chunk of scotch fillet steak and the best thing I found to do with it (actually the first) was a recipe from Maggie Beer - Slow roasted scotch fillet with vino cotto and rosemary

Maggie Beer, of course, being the canny businesswoman that she is makes her own and I think you can get it in the supermarket. I hope so, because if not I'm done! So I just checked and Coles do have a Moro product. It's relatively cheap, so probably not the real thing, but I'll give it a go. (An aside here - I just looked up Moro and it is indeed an Italian company with a story - so maybe tomorrow.)

It's a bit like all of those gourmet presents you get given isn't it? Actually one should grab them with much thanks and open hands. A chance to try something different - to experiment and maybe discover something you can't do without. Alas I am guilty of putting them on a high shelf in the pantry or in my reserve pantry drawer. And they get forgotten. Actually they should be put on the kitchen bench and used at the earliest opportunity. Which leads to a new resolution that will doubtless be broken, to do just that. I shall ferret some of them out and do something with them.

Cook and the ChefMaggie Beer certainly seems to have done that with her verjuice, her fruit pastes and her vincotto. She tastes it somewhere, loves it, so she makes it, promotes it, finds ways to use it and then makes a pretty penny. She's a lady who I simultaneously admire and almost despise. No that's too strong, but there is something about her that I don't like, although her recipes are always delicious and interesting. She tended to trump poor old Simon Bryant in their series anyway. And I found that Nigel Slater said that her version of vino cotto was his store-cupboard ingredient of the year. Which I guess is praise indeed as he must have access to the genuine Italian version.

But I ramble.

Although this is one of the latest of trendy ingredients, it is actually a rather ancient thing. Third century BC I believe is when it began and the Romans just loved it. But then it sort of went into a decline until I think the 17th century - and again now. Though I must admit it seems to be one of those things that is trendy here in Australia but not so much in the UK. Jamie Oliver does not have a single recipe that includes it on his website, for example, and he is very into Italian food.

So how is it made? Well Wikipedia gives us a basic description.

"It is made by the slow cooking and reduction over many hours of non-fermented grape must until it has been reduced to about one-fifth of its original volume and the sugars present have caramelized."

From my subsequent reading I can now add a few extra comments. The local red or white grapes, whatever they may be are used. Here in Australia they use shiraz. They also use grapes that are semi dried on the vine:

"The raw material comes from any of the red and white grapes of the region, particuiarly damaged bunches, and may include the pomace left over from normal winemaking. Thus it is a way to ensure that none of the harvest is wasted." Alchetron

These are then crushed, the skins and other bits filtered out and the remaining juice is then cooked - not fermented like wine. The Alchetron site, which has a very good description of the process and from where the picture above came from, says that they cook it for twenty four hours with two men working in shifts to stir and remove scum. Some makers, then ferment it for up to a year after it has cooked down. Others just put it into barrels to age - which can be for a long time. A bit like balsamic vinegar I guess - with which it is often compared, and which can be used as a substitute. So that's why it is so expensive.

Wikipedia seemed to think it was a northern Italian thing, but then lots of other sites said Puglia or Abruzzo. I suspect that everywhere in Italy has their own version. Unlike balsamic vinegar it's not a protected thing.

You can make a version at home, and one lady has a whole article about how her mum and dad approach it at home. the article on the Alternative Chef Kitchen is rather endearingly called Making vino cotto with mum and dad. It's a bit like the big Italian thing of making passata, and, in times gone by before health regulations, killing a pig and making salami and ham. Maybe it's the fact that we have a lot of Italians and Italian tradition here in Australia that has made it such a trendy ingredient here, rather than in the UK, where their Italians date back to rather older times.

These days, like balsamic vinegar, as well as the classic and basic vino cotto, you can get flavoured varieties. It's what happens to all of these things is it not? It's something I never know whether to applaud or decry. Yes it's good to stick to tradition and remember how mum made it, but it's also good to experiment and innovate. If those innovations fail - well and good. You can always return to the classic. Anyway I also found another recipe called Vincotto with fresh ginger and spices - from Food and Style. And there are several others out there. bearing in mind that we mostly don't have wine grapes at our disposal, some of them suggest just cooking down red wine, some use table grapes, some add other things. Have a browse and give it a go if you are feeling adventurous and have time on your hands. I don't think I would have the patience so I'll just shell out the money for something that is rather more authentic anyway.

So having acquired your vincotto/vino cotto somehow what can you do with it? Well as Maggie Beer says, you can sort of use it anywhere you would use balsamic vinegar for starters. Simply - you can deglaze a pan in which you have cooked a steak, put it in salad dressings, glaze meat for roasting or barbecuing, pour it over sweet things. Or you can add a splash to some sparkling cold soda water for a refreshing summer drink. Traditionally, according to the Alcheron site, it is drunk in small glasses with puddings and cheese.

Giorgio Locatelli has a good way with onions (and so does Maggie Beer). Here is his version:

"Another fantastic way to use vino cotto is with onions. Bake some whole onions in their skins in a medium oven for about an hour, until well cooked, then peel and cut lengthways. Put them in a bowl, add some vin cotto, a little bit of vinegar and some salt, and leave to marinate for a couple of hours. They make a delicious accompaniment to almost anything - especially to hot or cold winter meats."

SBS has 10 delicious ways with vincotto ranging from the very simple to complicated recipes. Donna Hay does pasta - Broccoli and speck pasta with vincotto and Nigel Slater does Roasted roots with vincotto.