Wine & Dine: 21 recipes that feature wine as an ingredient

A good Bolognese sauce includes wine, so of course, “The Very Best Bolognese Sauce” from The Recipe Critic calls for a cup of the good stuff. You’ll also need pancetta, beef, pork, carrots, onion, celery, garlic, tomatoes, chicken broth, and milk. Sure, it has many ingredients, but it’s worth it for this classic Italian sauce.

These succulent short ribs, courtesy of The View from Great Island, are braised for 3 hours in a mixture of red wine, onions, carrots, tomato paste, garlic, herbs, and beef stock. The fall-off-the-bone beef is then served over a bed of buttery polenta.

If you’re making some fondue, don’t skip the wine! Not only does the vino give the fondue some added flavor, but the acidity helps prevent the cheese from curdling or clumping. This version from Well Plated by Erin calls for a cup of dry white wine, like sauvignon blanc.

As nearly every chicken cacciatore recipe will tell you, you’ll need some red wine to make this dish shine. And as Spend with Pennies will tell you, you’ll also need chicken thighs, olive oil, mushrooms, capers, tomatoes, red and green peppers, onions, garlic, and a few herbs. (But you’ll only need 30 minutes of prep time!)

What kind of list would this be without chicken marsala? After all, the name comes from the fact that it contains Marsala wine. As Once Upon a Chef will explain, the wine is added to the creamy, buttery sauce that covers thin pieces of chicken breast and sliced bella or button mushrooms. 

This hearty Italian seafood stew contains a little of everything — including fish, shrimp, clams, mussels, and tomatoes — so of course, it also includes a generous serving of white wine. Try this version from Food Network, courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis.

The name of this French meal literally translates to “rooster in wine,” so of course, we had to include it in this list. It helps that this chicken thigh and red wine dish — which also contains mushrooms, pancetta (or bacon), carrots, and garlic — is also irresistibly delicious. Don’t be intimidated by the fancy French name, Once Upon a Chef can show you how it’s done.

Artichoke hearts, lemon, garlic, onion, chicken stock, white wine, and a few spices combine in this chicken dish from The Flour Handprint. You can make the whole shebang in a Dutch oven or skillet and serve it over rice or pasta.

One of the first dishes that comes to mind when people think of white wine is a big plate of mussels. The crisp, dry flavors of the wine pair well with the brine of the mussels, which you can experience for yourself with this recipe from Food.com that calls for just six ingredients and a mixture of spices.

Braised veal shanks, pancetta, celery, carrots, onion, garlic, thyme, parsley, lemon zest, and white wine join forces to make the classic Italian dish known as osso buco. Despite the fancy name, it’s actually pretty simple to make, as Simply Recipes can show you. You simply brown the pancetta, dredge and brown the veal shanks, saute the vegetables, and add the remaining ingredients to a Dutch oven for an hour of simmering. 

Pasta night just upgraded courtesy of this pasta all'Amatriciana recipe from Serious Eats. Swap spaghetti for bucatini (similar to spaghetti, but with a hole running through the middle) and throw together this sauce with crushed tomatoes, white wine, red pepper flakes, Pecorino Romano cheese, and guanciale (a cured Italian pork product).

We’re big fans of any recipe that contains the words “easy” and “red wine” (and doesn’t wine make a lot of things easier?), so of course, we tried this poached pears recipe from The Mediterranean Dish. And it was as easy (and tasty!) as described. You just need six pears, two oranges, honey, sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, and, of course, some red wine.

There are four things we love about this tiramisu recipe from Sweet & Savory Meals. It’s delicious, which is important, but it’s also a no-bake recipe, it doesn’t contain any gluten (thanks to Savoiardi biscuits), and it includes prosecco! But don’t worry. It only uses 12 ounces of the bubbly stuff, so you’ll still have plenty to sip.

Prosecco-soaked dark chocolate-covered strawberries? We like all those words. We also like how easy this recipe from Everyday Maven is. Put the strawberries in a Prosecco-filled Mason jar for 24 hours, dip them in melted chocolate, and refrigerate them for an hour. (Please note that in Step 2, Everyday Maven advises you to: “Proceed to drink strawberry-infused Prosecco while setting up a double boiler on the stove.”)

Beef stew doesn’t always contain wine, but provencal beef stew does! As the Keeping It Simple Blog will tell you, the dish combines sirloin, carrots, onions, red wine, garlic, tomato, mushrooms, a bouquet of herbs, and a simple dough made of flour and butter. It takes about 3.5 hours, but 3 hours of that is just the cooking time in the pot.

If death by chocolate is a real thing, then this is the dessert we want as our last meal. This red wine chocolate cake from Baker by Nature is decadent in both the frosting and the cake itself, which is helped by the fact that both parts contain red wine. A warning to wine lovers: This might become your new favorite chocolate cake recipe.

If you have a bottle of red wine and an ice cream maker, you can make red wine ice cream at home. Okay, you’ll need a few other ingredients — brown sugar, heavy whipping cream, half & half, and a vanilla bean — and you’ll probably want these instructions from Cooking with Janica.

Here’s a versatile recipe you can apply to your favorite dish. This red wine jus from Flawless Food is a tasty addition to lamb, beef, poultry, or veggies — our top pick: a nice cut of steak. The thin sauce is made from red wine, red wine vinegar, butter, shallots, garlic, beef stock, and a bit of thyme or rosemary.

In what might be the most Italian dish ever invented, here is red wine spaghetti. As Tasty will explain (and show you with an included video!), you’re essentially just boiling your pasta in a mixture of water and wine and then topping it with a light sauce made from olive oil, garlic, butter, parmesan, red pepper flakes, parsley, and salt & pepper. 

If you haven’t made risotto at home before, you might be surprised to find out that many versions contain white wine — specifically a dry white, which will provide the best burst of flavor. We’ve already featured numerous recipes that include mushrooms, so here’s a risotto from Serious Eats that’s mushroom-free.

Piccata dishes feature a cut of meat that’s coated in flour, sauteed, and served in a sauce made of lemon and butter. Of course, that’s just the basic definition — this veal piccata recipe from Leite’s Culinaria also includes capers and white wine. (Don’t like veal? Chicken or pork work just as well!)