Piggy pasta

My dinner at Fook Lam Moon got cancelled at the last minute, so my friend Jerry and I headed over to Tuscany by H for a simple meal.  Jerry's never been to Tuscany by H, and I wanted to get some good pasta.  I was particularly looking forward to any seafood pasta specials that Harlan may whip up...

I didn't want to eat too much tonight, since I've been gaining back some of the weight I lost over the last couple of months.  I decided to just stick to a pasta dish.  To my dismay there was only one pasta special tonight, and it had nothing to do with seafood!  I was more than happy to settle for the fettucine with porcini mushrooms and truffle purée, though, given the way some friends raved about the porcini pasta here.

But what arrived in front of me didn't look anything like porcini pasta.  I took one bite and found lots of meat...so I called the waiter over and asked about the identity of the pasta.  It turns out that they had gotten my order wrong and sent me the wild boar ragout pasta instead!  I was debating whether to get the porcini or the wild boar ragout, and I guess the waiter got confused.  They offered to change to the correct pasta for me, but as I've already taken a bite and I am a big fan of Harlan's wild boar ragout, I decided to stick with it.

Today's pasta was a bit different from past versions, and I guess it always varies.  First of all there was a semi-cooked egg on top, and I guess it must have been a duck egg coz the yolk was really orange.  A small sprinkle of what looked like parmesan shavings was on top of the egg.  Then the texture of the ragout was much chewier than I remembered, as there was not only pancetta affumicata added to the wild boar, but chorizo (or some other chewy sausage) as well.  It was a hearty pasta suited for winter, and pretty much hit the spot despite the texture being a little too complex...

I brought along a bottle each of red and white, and decided to go for red as Jerry was having beef as his main course.  The 2001 Kongsgaard Syrah drank pretty well, with nose of prunes, forest, pine needle, Christmas potpurri, orange...and the nose was sweet and jammy after it opened up.  The tannins were round and smooth, and the wine was still pretty concentrated.  Sweet on the palate with a hot and spicy finish.  Not bad at all.

I'm happy I kept things light tonight, as I didn't have to carry my stomach home after dinner.  I did get a nice buzz though, as the 14.1% alcohol definitely kicked in... Not bad for a Monday night!