While hosting a party might leave you with leftover wine, there are plenty of creative ways to use it beyond just throwing it out. The uses can vary greatly depending on how much wine is left, from enhancing dishes with a splash of wine to creating new culinary delights.
Transforming Small Quantities
For small amounts of leftover red or white wine, they can be easily incorporated into sauces. Jon Atashroo, head chef and owner of Where There’s Smoke, suggests adding wine to create delicious pasta sauces or using it to deglaze pans before making gravy. Joe Otway, of Higher Ground in Manchester, emphasises how reducing a little wine can enhance the base of various dishes, such as ragu or chilli, by providing acidity and depth. Conveniently, wine dregs can also be frozen in ice-cube trays for later culinary use.
Medium Amounts for Broader Uses
When more wine remains, there are opportunities for more elaborate recipes. Atashroo recommends dishes like moules marinière or even pickling. For pickling, he suggests a simple mixture of equal parts sugar, white-wine vinegar, and wine to preserve items such as beetroot or cucumbers. If you prefer something sweet, try reducing wine with 20% of its weight in sugar to create a syrup, which adds a nuanced flavour over vanilla ice cream. Additionally, wine is excellent for poaching fruits like peaches and pears.
Utilising Larger Quantities
If you’re faced with an abundance of leftover wine, transforming it into vinegar can be rewarding. Otway advises that adding natural cider vinegar with a bit of wine and covering it lightly will lead to flavourful vinegars after a month. The resulting vinegar can then be used to uplift dressings, especially during summer months.
Sparkling Wine and Other Drinks
If leftover sparkling wine is what you’re dealing with, Alastair Walling of Bar Blondie in London has a perfect solution with a beurre blanc sauce. This involves reducing champagne with other ingredients like finely diced mushrooms and whisking in chilled butter for a luxurious fish accompaniment. For those considering cocktails, Jonny Lake of Trivet suggests crafting sangria by combining leftover red wine with brandy, citrus juices, and fruit slices for a refreshing summer beverage.
Reporting based on coverage first published by theguardian.com.