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!
TIL: People who are using wine as an ingredient in a meal, really think they have to use the expensive ones as well. For years we are using just the cheapest bottled wine available. If you think about it, you could also just use balsamic vinegar or something similar for a white wine to add the acidyness/taste. The alcohol does evaporate anyway. But these things are mostly subjective anyway.
Good wine doesn’t need to be expensive, but I’ve learned you shouldn’t use wine for cooking if you wouldn’t drink it either