What to drink with pasta

There are those who say that to drink anything other than water with pasta is profanity; others swear by beer. While I cannot subscribe to the water theory, there is no doubt that beer is a good accompaniment to pasta in most of its many guises. However, I think wine is the perfect match for pasta – they might have been made for each other.

On the question of red or white, it is impossible to be dogmatic. It all depends on the sauce, of course, and there are a few sauces that demand one or the other. But on the whole pasta is very tolerant, and either red or white wine can be drunk with most of the sauces in this book with equal pleasure. There follows a simple list of those sauces whose taste definitely goes best with one or the other. The best way to take it from there is to experiment and to be guided by your own palate. The worst that can happen, after all, is that you will have the pleasure of trying again.