Wine & Spirits - October 2019 - 30

EMMA ZUCCARDI FINDS
NO DIFFICULTY IN PAIRING
ARGENTINE MALBEC WITH
VEGETABLES: SHE'S BEEN
DOING IT DAILY FOR 40 YEARS

Emma's
KitchEn
A vegetarian life in the land of malbec
by PATRICIO TAPIA

WINE & SPIRITS

OCTOBER 2019

he table holds a feast: trays of onion
empanadas wrapped in thin, crisp
dough; roasted peppers redolent with
garlic; voluptuous stuffed artichokes.
There are avocados and bowls of mayonnaise, made with olive oil, to spread on
the homemade bread. There is eggplant
lasagna and several bottles of malbec.
And at the head of the table is Emma Zuccardi, smiling with
pleasure as she watches her family-son, grandchildren and
great-grandchildren-pass the dishes around.
Emma is 93 years old and has just published Emma's
Kitchen, her first book. It's a collection of the recipes that,
for decades, she has prepared for her husband, her children
and her grandchildren at the Zuccardi winery.
Her hair perfectly coiffed, with the austere elegance of
Mendocinas, Emma insists that I try another empanada.
It's impossible to refuse her warm smile. It's the same smile
you see on her son, José, who built the family business in
the 1990s to become one of the most important wineries in
Argentina, and on her eldest grandson, Sebastián, who in
the last five years has been making the wines. "Yes, Emma.
Muchas gracias," I say, the empanada already on my plate.
Emma's recipes are almost entirely vegetarian, something
that seems like an eccentricity in Argentina, and particularly
in Mendoza, where meat is not only part of the basic diet, but
also a way of socializing: The asado is an excuse for families
and friends to come together by the grill.
One of her reasons for writing a quasi-vegetarian book is
that, blinded by the quality of the meat, many people miss
the quality of Mendoza's vegetables. Yet one taste of Mendozan tomatoes and your world view of the fruit can change
completely.
Another is more personal, Emma explains. About 40 years
ago, her husband, Alberto, who founded the winery in 1963,
came out of a stressful meeting feeling unwell. "I remember
that he went to my office, which was in front of his, and I saw
him pale, complaining. Fortunately it was nothing serious,
but the doctor recommended no meat for a couple of weeks,"
Emma recalls, while I devour the empanada.
Until that moment, Emma tells me, her husband ate meat
almost every day. However, after two meat-free weeks, he felt
so good that he decided to change his diet completely. "And
the truth is that I had never seen him so well since he was
young," she tells me, passing the eggplant lasagna.
Emma transformed the nightly menus. "There was, occasionally, some meat for the little ones, but most of what I
cooked was vegetables." Emma says, while Sebastián, sitting
next to her, nods.
"Since I can remember, my grandfather was a vegetarian,"
he says, the scent of the steaming lasagna rising from the pan.
The pasta in the lasagna does not so much melt in the
mouth as it simply evaporates, letting the flavor of the eggplant linger. "Would you like another bit?" she asks me, smiling. "Yes. Muchas gracias, Emma."
Meat, according to Emma, is a faithful and easy-to-cook
companion. You put it on the grill and that's it. Vegetables,
meanwhile, require more time and attention. "You have to
choose them in the market, you have to clean them well, you
have to peel them and cook them. And there are so many

Wine & Spirits - October 2019

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