Tonight’s supper was Fusillotti pasta with a sauce made from Shepherd’s Lamb Italian-seasoned sausage and canned tomatoes with garlic, oregano, & basil. The sausage was browned, sliced and placed in the sauce. The sauce was the canned tomatoes, drained, with more garlic, onion, organic tomato paste, and basil added. When the fusillotti was cooked to al dente, it was put in pasta bowls and topped with the finished sauce, and completed with leaves of fresh basil.
The pasta dish was enjoyed with a 1995 Sangiusto di Renntanno ‘Percarlo’ - fill less than a cm below the cork; bright ruby in color with no light edge; nice complex red and black cherries in nose & flavors; a noticible tannic quality in mid and finish both before and after the pasta; the rich, acidic tomatoes tempered the tannins while eating the pasta; a balanced mid-palate (except for the tannins) with adequate acidity and good cherry fruit; and a long. complex cherry fruit finish.
Then for dessert we shared a slightly overripe Comice pear with grappas. I had a glass of Poli Grappa di Moscato, follwed by two glasses of Badia a Coltibuono wood-aged Grappa di Sangiovese. The Badia was better with the ripe comice than the light Moscato, Caollee had a Moscato to start followed by the Banfi Grappa di Montalcino. She also toght thr Banfi was better with the pear than the Moscato.