Food & Wine April 2025

NV BISOL CREDE PROSECCO SUPERIORE ($28) If you haven’t checked out my fellow editor Lucy Simon’s delightful ongoing series of wine reels on F&W’s Instagram, you should! (I pop into them from time to time, too.) Recently, we evaluated a few new Prosecco releases on camera, and this elegant, minerally cuvée from a historic producer was my fave. 2022 FRANCESCO CIRELLI CERASUOLO D’ABRUZZO ($28) Cerasuolo, the classic rosé of Italy’s Abruzzo region, is not like Provençal rosé at all—it’s transparent ruby in color and full-bodied enough to go with main courses of all kinds. I had this one with the spicy lobster crispy rice at Kiko in NYC, where co-owner Lina Goujjane’s list is full of similarly cool surprises. 2022 LA PONCA COLLIO MALVASIA ($50) This small Friulian producer…

Spring Uncorked AT FOOD & WINE, we’re fortunate to have a crackerjack team of wine, beer, and cocktail experts, whose mission is to make sure you have something excellent to drink. By now you know Executive Wine Editor Ray Isle, who just celebrated his 20th work anniversary at F&W, and if you follow us on Instagram, be sure to watch Special Projects Editor Lucy Simon’s video series, in which she demystifies a lot of the everyday wines you love (and a few wild outliers, like a $6,500 port from the 1800s). This issue also marks the print debut of Senior Drinks Editor Prairie Rose, whose feature “Cook Like a Bartender, Bartend Like a Cook” (p. 90) will make you think more deeply about the versatility of your pantry ingredients, whether…

TWENTY YEARS AGO, the Hugo Spritz—a simple cocktail of elderflower liqueur, Prosecco, and soda water—was invented by Roland “AK” Gruber. The four-ingredient drink, originally called the Otto, is now wildly popular around the world, with bars everywhere creating delicious spin-offs like the Green Tea Hugo Spritz (recipe at right). The main star of the Hugo Spritz is the elderflower liqueur that serves as the drink’s base. Elderflower liqueur is a lightly sweet, floral, and fruity aperitif that captures the essence of springtime. There are several elderflower liqueurs on the market, like Giffard’s Fleur de Sureau Sauvage and the Italian-made Fiorente, but the best known is St-Germain, a French liqueur whose production starts with a big wildflower harvest that kicks off in May. “The elderflower bloom is very ephemeral because it’s…

THERE’S AN EASY WAY TO MAKE strong single-serve coffee without an espresso machine or an electric appliance with single-use pods. If you’re not already acquainted, it’s time to meet the moka pot. Invented in Italy in 1933, moka pots were the first-ever device for making bold, espresso-style coffee at home. Both espresso machines and moka pots brew coffee with the power of pressure, forcing hot water through coffee grounds (see “How to Use a Moka Pot,” at right). This is different from drip coffee machines or a pour-over, which rely on the gentle pull of gravity to flavor the water. Although a moka pot can’t achieve the same level of pressure as an espresso machine—the latter has a pressure of about 9 bars (the unit for measuring the amount of…

YOU COULD CALL Yao Zhao a sermonizer of spices, or a preacher of pepper. At his company 50Hertz Tingly Foods, which specializes in premium Szechuan pepper, the mission is, in his words, “to spread the tingle.” Szechuan pepper, the tiny dried fruit of the prickly ash tree, delivers zesty, floral flavors, along with a tingly sensation on your lips and tongue when eaten—a sensation similar to 50 hertz of electricity (hence the name of Zhao’s company). In Szechuan cooking, Szechuan pepper is famously paired with hot chile peppers to create a mala (“numbing and spicy”) flavor profile for dishes like mapo tofu. But Zhao wants to showcase its versatility and potential for all kinds of dishes—not just spicy ones. Zhao focused first on pantry ingredients, with a line of Szechuan…

AMONG WINE NERDS, artichokes get no respect. I can’t blame them—the spiky, globelike vegetable is nearly impossible to pair with. Artichokes are packed with a naturally occurring chemical called cynarin that magnifies sweetness. Once it’s on your palate, cynarin amplifies the natural sweetness in wines, causing most of them to collapse into flabby, one-dimensional blobs: Many sommeliers call artichokes their kryptonite. Thankfully, there are superhero wines hiding in plain sight, just waiting to save the day—and the meal. Here are four rules to keep in mind when pairing wine with artichokes. NO OAK Oak, by way of barrel fermentation or barrel aging, imparts sweetness to wines, so when oak meets cynarin, the wine falls flat. Choose wines to go with artichokes that are light, crisp, and bone-dry, with high acidity…