The Best Wine to Drink with Pizza and Pasta

Most pairing advice makes this harder than it needs to be. Cari Amici, here is the one idea that unlocks it: when choosing the best wine with pizza and pasta, pair the wine to the sauce, not to the pasta. The noodle is neutral. The sauce carries the flavour, the fat, the acidity and the weight, and the sauce is what your wine has to stand up to.

Learn that, and you can pair confidently for the rest of your life, even with a menu you’ve never seen.

The three rules that cover almost everything

Before the specifics, three principles do most of the work:

• Match weight to weight. Light sauces want light wines; rich, slow-cooked sauces want structured ones. A delicate white disappears against a ragù.
• Acidity loves acidity. Tomato is sharp, so it needs a wine with lively acidity or the wine will taste flat and dull beside it.
• What grows together goes together. A Roman dish with a Lazio wine, a Neapolitan pizza with a Campanian one. Centuries of eating worked this out already.

Pairing pasta by sauce

Tomato-based (marinara, arrabbiata, tomato and basil). Tomato’s acidity is the whole challenge here. Reach for a medium-bodied red with bright acidity and modest tannin, in the style of a Chianti or a Barbera. A crisp, sharp white also works beautifully.

Cream, cheese and egg (carbonara, cacio e pepe, alfredo-style). Richness needs cutting. A crisp, mineral white refreshes the palate between bites, and a dry sparkling wine does it even better, since bubbles scrub away the fat. If you want red, keep it light and low in tannin. Our carbonara and cacio e pepe recipes both sit in this group.

Meat ragù and baked pasta. This is where the serious reds belong. Long-cooked meat, depth and savouriness call for a structured red with real body and tannin, in the style of a Sangiovese-based wine or something from the Italian north.

Seafood pasta. Stay white, dry and mineral. Red tannin clashes unpleasantly with fish and shellfish, and a bright coastal white lifts the whole plate.

Pesto, oil and garlic, or vegetable sauces. Light, herbal and fresh. A dry white with a green, grassy edge mirrors the basil and the olive oil.

Pairing pizza

Pizza is more forgiving than people expect, largely because tomato, cheese and char are so companionable.

Margherita and other tomato pizzas. A medium red with good acidity is the classic answer, matching the tomato without overwhelming the mozzarella.

White pizzas (no tomato). With cream, cheese and no acidity to fight, whites and sparkling wines shine.

Meat-topped pizzas. Salami, sausage and spice want a fuller, fruitier red with a little backbone.

Vegetable pizzas. Lighter reds and dry whites both work, depending on how earthy the toppings are.

And there’s no shame in beer with pizza, which is what plenty of Italians drink. If you’d like to understand the two great pizza traditions first, our Neapolitan versus Roman pizza guide explains the difference.

Serving matters as much as choosing

A well-chosen bottle can still be let down at the table. Whites and sparkling wines are best cool rather than freezing, since heavy chilling flattens the aroma and the acidity you chose them for, so ten minutes out of the fridge before pouring usually improves them. Light reds are lovely slightly cool, especially in our climate, where a red served at true room temperature can taste heavy and alcoholic.

Give a young structured red a little air, either by opening it early or by pouring it generously into large glasses. And use a glass with room in it, since a wine that can’t breathe can’t show you what it is.

Where people go wrong

The usual mistakes are easy to sidestep:

• Pairing to the pasta shape rather than to the sauce, which tells you nothing useful.
• Choosing a big tannic red for everything, which overwhelms cream, cheese and seafood.
• Serving whites too cold and reds too warm, which flattens one and bloats the other.
• Overthinking it. A pairing that pleases you has succeeded, whatever a chart says.

The one bottle that pairs with nearly everything

If you want a single wine to keep in the house for whatever appears on the table, buy dry sparkling wine. Prosecco or a dry Italian sparkler has acidity, bubbles and no heavy tannin, which means it flatters tomato, cuts through cream, refreshes against cheese and sits happily beside seafood.

It is the most forgiving bottle in Italian wine, and the reason it appears at aperitivo, at celebrations and at ordinary Tuesday dinners alike. Our aperitivo at home guide puts it to work.

When in doubt

Three fallbacks, in order. Choose a wine from the same region as the dish. Choose acidity over richness, since a fresh wine rarely ruins anything while a heavy one easily can. And remember that the wine you enjoy drinking is better than the wine a chart recommends. Pairing is a guide, not a rule, and no Italian has ever sent a bottle back for failing a pairing test.

Where to buy Italian wine in KL

Browse our Italian wines at the grocery store, add the pasta and cheese to go with them, and we’ll deliver across the Klang Valley within the hour. Our wine delivery guide covers timings and coverage.

Salute, and pour what makes you happy.

Frequently asked questions

Q1. Do I really need a different wine for each pasta dish?
Ans. Not at all. Match the wine to the sauce rather than the dish, and one good red and one good white will cover almost everything you cook.

Q2. Can I drink red wine with creamy pasta?
Ans. Yes, if you keep it light and low in tannin, since heavy tannin clashes with cream and cheese. A crisp white or sparkling wine usually suits it better.

Q3. What wine goes with carbonara?
Ans. Something crisp and mineral, or a dry sparkling wine, to cut through the egg and Pecorino. Avoid big tannic reds, which fight the richness.

Q4. Why does my wine taste odd with tomato sauce?
Ans. Tomato is highly acidic, so a low-acid wine tastes flat and dull beside it. Choose a wine with lively acidity and the problem disappears.

Q5. Is it acceptable to drink beer with pizza?
Ans. Entirely, and plenty of Italians do. A cold lager cuts through cheese beautifully.

Q6. What if I only want to buy one bottle?
Ans. Make it a dry sparkling wine like Prosecco, which is the most forgiving pairing in Italian wine. It handles tomato, cream, cheese and seafood alike.

Q7. Does the price of the wine change the pairing?
Ans. No, style matters far more than price. An honest everyday bottle in the right style beats an expensive one in the wrong style every time.

Q8. Should white wine be served very cold?
Ans. Cool rather than icy, since heavy chilling mutes the aroma and acidity you’re pairing for. Take it out of the fridge a few minutes before pouring.

Q9. What about wine with a cheese board after the pasta?
Ans. That’s its own art, and worth doing well. Our cheese and wine pairing guide covers it properly.

Q10. Where can I buy Italian wine in Kuala Lumpur?
Ans. From our wine selection at the grocery store, delivered across the Klang Valley within the hour.