Last night’s dinner was guanciale, diced and browned in its own fat. After the guanciale was nicely browned, I added Rao’s Tomato-Basil Sauce with added chopped garlic to it. Then when the garganelli was finished, I plated it and spooned the sauce over it. It was quite enjoyable with a 1994 Castello di Ama L’Apparita - fill an 1/4 of an inch below the cork, cork very crumbly and saturated; good ruby color with no light edge, good slightly herbal cherry-berry fruit, with barely adequate acidity, light tannins; and a long herbal fruit finish. The wine was mostly merlot, but still enjoyable with the pasta.
Then for dessert, while watching stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse (via TiVo), we finished our two grappas: Banfi Grappa di Montalcino and Badia á Coltibuono wood-aged Grappa di Sangiovese with a shared half a Pink Lady apple.