Recommendations
Parmesan crisps with Ferreira Dona Antonia 10 Years Old Tawny Porto
On the board are thin, lacy crisps of grated Parmigiano Reggiano that have spread and set in the oven, brittle and decidedly salty. Set against that, the port is a ten-year-old tawny, whose residual sugar dampens the salt and whose ageing links up with the savoury depth of the cheese.
From the shelf
The bottle
Ferreira is a port house from the Douro, founded in 1751; the Dona Antonia line is named after Antonia Adelaide Ferreira, who ran the house in the nineteenth century. This is a tawny with a ten-year age indication: the house blends it from wines of eight to fifteen years, so that the average comes to about ten years. The grapes are Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Barroca, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Cao and Tinta Amarela. The bottle is 20 percent alcohol and comes in 75 centilitres, with 104 grams of residual sugar per litre and a total acidity of 4.64 grams per litre. With those 104 grams it falls into the class the institute calls sweet, between 90 and 130 grams. The house recommends 12 to 16 degrees, the institute 10 to 14 degrees for tawny.
The combination
Why this works together
Parmigiano Reggiano is distinctly savoury, and that comes from more than salt. During the long ageing, proteins break down into free amino acids, including glutamic acid, and that gives the deep, umami-like taste the cheese is known for. Salt and umami are both tastes that sweetness dampens: Green and colleagues saw the perception of salt in a mixture with sucrose come out 82.6 percent lower. With 104 grams of residual sugar per litre, this tawny has enough sweetness to do that work, so the cheese stays savoury but not sharp. The ageing adds to that: ten years in cask give the port notes of nut, dried fruit and vanilla, and a Parmigiano has a nutty side of its own that fits with it. And the 4.64 grams of acid per litre keeps the glass fresh beside a cheese that leaves fat in the mouth.
At the table
The dish
- For 4 people
- Ready in 15 minutes
- Type cheese course
What you need
- about 120 g Parmigiano Reggiano, coarsely grated (a good 2 tablespoons per crisp, for twelve crisps)
How to make it
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Grate the Parmigiano Reggiano on the coarse side of a grater, holding the piece of cheese upright, so you get long strips; these give the crisp its lacy structure.
- Lay twelve rounds of about 2 tablespoons of grated cheese well apart on the baking paper. Press them down lightly if you like.
- Bake them for 3 to 5 minutes, until the cheese bubbles and starts to change colour.
- Let the crisps cool completely on the paper before you remove them; while warm they are still limp and break.
- Serve them on a board with the glass of port.
In the glass
Serving
Serve this ten-year-old tawny at 10 to 14 degrees, or at the 12 to 16 degrees the house keeps to; in any case keep the bottle cooler than room temperature. Use a tulip-shaped glass and fill it no more than a third. Decanting is not necessary. According to the institute, an opened bottle of tawny with an age statement stays good for one to four months, because the wine has been used to oxygen for years in cask. Store it upright in a cool place.
Everything about Ferreira Dona Antonia 10 Years Old Tawny PortoBack to Recommendations from ’t Bockje
Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan personen onder de 18 jaar. NIX18