Something ELSE that you can do with unfinished bottles of wine!

Some of you may have seen my earlier piece on making home-made vinegar - if not, have a look - just click on the word “vinegar” in the “categories” heading on the top right of this page…

So here’s another, even EASIER activity to transform (slightly) long-in-the-tooth bottles into a delicious and versatile product: grape syrup!

In Italy, as well as in many eastern Mediterranean countries, there is a product called “mosto cotto” (at least that’s what it’s called in Italian; the Greek or Arabic words for this product, I no know). Mosto cotto means “cooked must”. OK, the cooked part I think you get, but what’s “must” you ask? Must is essentially a winey word for juice - grape juice. In these places, just after crush, a certain small percentage of the fresh must is drawn off before fermentation. This rich and dense juice is lightly filtered to remove any large solid particles from the juice. Once filtered, the must is put into large copper pots and slowly cooked over low fires until the liquid arrives more or less at the consistency of maple syrup. This is mosto cotto. Used for both sweet and savory dishes, this product has a taste that is quite different from either wine or grape juice, it being fantastically intense with a strong sweet/sour pivot.

So here’s how it’s done:

First, don’t use wine that is TOO old…once a wine has gotten past a certain point (i.e. too much acetic acid development), you’re more likely to end up with a result more akin to an un-aged balsamic vinegar than a true mosto cotto, but if that is indeed what you want, go right ahead - this kind of stuff makes for good eatin’ too…

- Pour whatever amount of wine that you wish to reduce into a (preferably) older, medium-sized sauce pan. Be sure however that you’re not trying to reduce only a mouthful or two of wine - it’ll hardly be worth it, and you’re FAR more likely to burn the whole affair anyway…

- Turn the heat on VERY low, and bring wine to a BARE simmer. Adjust heat to maintain this level.

- *VERY IMPORTANT* As the wine JUST STARTS to become noticeably thickened, DO NOT WALK AWAY FROM THE STOVE FOR EVEN ONE MINUTE! This liquid will turn from wonderful piquant sauce to smoking, blackened, bubbling mess in just a few seconds - and if it does, the pan that you’ve used is DONE. Garbage. Kaput (this is why I suggest using an older, less beloved saucepan, just in case).

- Cook the wine until the consistency is approxmately the viscosity of light cream - remember, this is molten sugar, so it is thinner at this temperature. As the liquid begins to cool, it will become more viscous.

- Transfer the liquid into a CLEAN heat resistant, lightly sealable glass jar…that’s it!

A FEW VERY IMPORTANT NOTES:

You should always cook with your nose, but employ that advice double here…unfortunately, when the nose becomes clearly involved in this process, it might also be too late. If the heat you’re using is too high you can begin to “burn” the volatile grape substances in the wine before you even see any smoke. You’ll know that you’ve gone too far when you smell a clearly acrid, bitter smell. If you smell this, remove the pan IMMEDIATELY for the heat and run the pot under HOT water to remove the burned liquid.

Basically, you can’t rush this process. If you go SLOW AND STEADY, you should have success on the first go-round.

As you get better at this, you can begin to infuse some of your mosti with herbs - sage works well as does marjoram and tarragon…The woodier herbs like rosemary, thyme and oregano, if cooked at anything above a BARE simmer can impart a bitterness to the mosto - experiment CAREFULLY with these herbs before you NEED them for a recipe that is slated for the evening’s meal…Put the herbs into the pot, pour the wine over and begin to reduce VERY SLOWLY. As soon as there is ANY NOTICEABLE reduction, remove the herb(s)…as a matter of policy, it’s better to infuse the mosto with a large quantity of herbs for just a short time than to use just a little bit, and over-extract the flavors - this can also invite an unpleasant bitterness.

Since you’ll probably be doing this operation with a dry rather than a sweet wine, if your results are bit too sour - now get ready for this - add a little sugar…also, don’t forget to season the sauce with salt and pepper.

Just to be very clear about all of this, this procedure does not produce what is strictly called mosto cotto, since true mosto cotto is made pre-fermentation. Mosto cotto is definitely sweeter. Nevertheless, it does yield a very flavorful product…

SO WHAT THE HELL DO I DO WITH THIS STUFF?!

I’m glad you asked…since the result of this operation is so intensely sweet AND sour, this syrup works a well with sweet dishes as well as savory ones…in the sweet setting, try pouring it over vanilla ice cream or as a post-oven drizzle over some sweet butter cookies. On the savory front, the infused mosti are excellent dressings for meat or with oil and a bit of water, as dressing for salads or cooked vegetables…and my forebears from the central Italian region of Molise still make a dish of flash deep fried cauliflower that is drizzled with mosto cotto and then sprinkled with slivered almonds. Yum….as always, experiment…

TOM CIOCCO