A vol-au-vent is a French pastry that non-French people know as puff pastry. But vol-au-vent sounds so much more elegant!
The pastry cup is made by putting one circle of puff pastry on top of the other…. and then cutting a smaller hole in the top layer to make an opening. Then when the puff pastry is baked, it miraculously forms a cup. Once baked, it can be filled with savory items–like the seafood bisque shown in this photo–or sweet fillings such as chocolate cream.
When pairing a vol-au-vent, it’s more important to focus on what’s on the inside. Think of it as an elegant pie crust. A seafood bisque like this pairs with a light white wine, but a steak and mushroom filling would pair better with a full-bodied red wine.
NATIV Winery sponsored a wine and food pairing dinner along with Irpinia Imports, which brings the wine into Panama from Italy. The dinner was hosted at a waterfront Italian restaurant, La Vespa Vista Mare. (Which means the scooter with the view of the sea, just in case you were wondering.)
When the waiter brought this beautiful vol-au-vent in an oyster shell, I hoped that there would be a second one following. But alas, when food is this beautiful, you only get one.
The seafood bisque pastry was paired with the NATIV Fiano di Avellino white wine, a crisp soft wine from Irpinia, located in the Campania region of Southern Italy. I am madly in love with the NATIV wines, so this pairing set my evening on a trajectory toward perfection.
The Fiano di Avellino is made from 100% Fiano grapes. If you’re not familiar with this variety, you’re not alone. Fiano is grown mainly in Campania and can probably trace its roots to the Roman empire. Recently, Australia has also started to produce more wines with Fiano grapes, so you might begin to see it more and more.
I use pastry cups a lot when I cook, but I haven’t made this with the seafood bisque… yet. I plan to start experimenting tomorrow, though, as I am salivating for a dinner that consists just of seafood bisque vol-au-vent and an entire bottle of the Fiano di Avellino.
Don’t judge. I never said I wasn’t greedy.
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