Hi all,
I recently came across a recipe that I wish to try for a lentil bolognese. I’m excited to try it as I’ve been trying to find a recipe I can use my red lentils with, but I’m curious about one thing both with this recipe, and recipes in general.
This recipe calls for the pan to be deglazed with red wine. This is something I’ve seen before in other recipes, though this recipe is the first of which I’m taking an interest in exploring. I’m personally fine with regular red wine, but my concern is that I have a friend who is incredibly cautious with alcohol, and says she’d refuse to eat things if they had alcoholic ingredients.
Putting aside my personal thoughts about that, I was curious if using a non-alcoholic wine would work just as well, or if the alcohol adds certain properties to the wine that make it function better as an ingredient or for deglazing. I’m mainly curious as I hope to invite friends over for dinner in the future, and want to make accommodations where possible, especially if it’s as easy as simply buying a slightly different ingredient.
Thanks in advance!
You can use a vinegar to deglaze. That will give it a bunch of flavor and doesn’t contain alcohol. I would try out a balsamic or red wine vinegar to complement the bolognese.
Definitely don’t do a 1:1 replacement, though, that will be far too sour! I would say start with a tablespoon or so and replace the rest of the liquid with water or stock, then scale up if you want more punch.
I personally don’t cut the balsamic I use because I like the flavor in sauces. But I don’t use a cup of it or anything like that. A few splashes of vinegar will deglaze your pan just fine. I would say maybe 1/4 of a cup or less if I were eyeballing it.
You probably have a very good balsamic, something probably not in most grocery stores.
I think most people don’t realize that a great balsamic isn’t the acidic, tart, watery stuff, but something more viscous and damn delicious all on its own (though acidic ones have their place in cooking, like sauerbraten).
I have a few, one that’s just for salad or as a finish, others I’d use while cooking.
I have sometimes replaced white wine for mushroom risotto with apple-cider vinegar, water and sugar mixture.