What types of wine go well with pasta dishes?

Volker Eichener

 · 

Following

Professor at Hochschule Düsseldorf Oct 24

What types of wine go well with pasta dishes? Does red wine go well with pasta dishes and does white wine go better with tomato based sauces such as béchamel and alfredo sauce recipes on this site?

It depends on the sauce. And on your personal taste.

You may a few basic rules:

1. Sparkling wine (prosecco, dry spumante) matches with everything.
2. Whitish sauces and sauces with boiled fish or seafood require white wines.
3. With fruity tomato sauces, a rosato would be perfect.
4. For meaty sauces (like ragù alla bolognese) you want a red wine.
5. With green pesto, a herbaceous white (like Sauvignon blanc or Vermentino) or a bolder white wine works best.
6. With truffles, you need a very bold, very mineralic white.

These are just general rules of thumb. There are some ambivalent cases, e.g. spaghetti alla carbonara. The creamy sauce of egg yolks seems to require a (medium-bodied) white wine but the seared guanciale might call for a red. The obvious solution: either one works. Either take a medium-bodied white or a lighter red.

Some examples:

Ragù of course with a heavier red:

Fruity tomato sauce with rosato:

Frutti di mare with a steely white wine:

Pesto with a full-bodied white wine: