Will swapping the red wine in my spaghetti bolognese with port wreck the dish?
We were out of red wine when cooking spaghetti bolognese today, but eyed off the port as a possible substitute. We decided against it but were left wondering. I imagine you'd have to halve the quantity because it would be too strong. I thought it might make it too sweet.
My question is: Will swapping the red wine in my spaghetti bolognese with port wreck the dish?
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In short, using port as a substitute for red wine will not wreck the dish.
Though the flavour is different (and richer) and will make your bolognese taste different as a result, the taste should not be bad. I frequently do this as I am not a red wine drinker, and port keeps far better in an open bottle. I would recommend using slightly less than when using red wine, but this is highly subjective.
Port is a little sweeter than ordinary red wine so it will change the taste but not, in my opinion, in a bad way. After all, the bulk of your sauce is tomato and some tomatoes are a little sweeter than others. Some people even add a little sugar to their tomato sauces, anyway.
A lot of ragu/bolognese recipes actually call for white wine, which is another option.
Nope. Port (or Porto as we Portuguese people call it), will leave a sweeter taste in your dish.
This is related to the process of making the wine.
In Port wine, during the fermentation process is added brandy to continue the fermentation process during the colder times of the north Portugal region. This process leaves more natural grape sugar in the wine.
You could also leave the wine out, with no ill effects.
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