Well-Aged Pleasure

Tonight, P & F came over for a home-cooked meal to celebrate P's birthday.

I made fresh pappardelle and put the pasta machine to work for the first time. It was laborious, but fun. I was amused to see that even in the 2 hours between when I made the pasta and I cooked it, it had started to dry into the consistency you think of when you think of pasta. Hard. Yellow. Slightly crunchy.

As for the sauce, I cheated. I used leftover frozen bolognese from E's birthday dinner.

And for the wine. Well, it was glorious.

We opened a bottle of 1998 La Braccesca.

Heaven.

God bless the owner of the wine store in Cortona who picked out the 6 bottles I shipped back in 2001. As I learned more about wine I realized he didn't take advantage of my ignorance and actually did pick quite a wonderful selection. They have been aging and waiting for the right moment since their arrival. Tonight's selection was the first of the 6. It was perfect. It makes me think the others may be near their time as well...

In fact, the whole meal was in it's prime: the pasta machine has been here at least a year, waiting patiently in line for its first use. The pasta had dried for 2 hours (or the first few noodles had, anyways). The mustard greens were fresh. The bolognese had aged in the freezer. And the egg tarts that P & F brought had been obtained after waiting in a long line in Chinatown.

Sometimes, a little waiting is a good thing.