Casual

Sirkka and Danny came over for a mellow Friday dinner. Christine had been to Fleisher's earlier in the day, and their housemade sausages are very good, so I whipped up a variation on her Mom's sausage pasta sauce- with hot & sweet sausage and lots of herbs. Whole wheat spaghetti has a nice body and flavor for a big sauce like this (even though we don't like the other shapes; the penne, etc. are too mealy) and there were good sides, mostly from right outside the kitchen: mash, sautéed pak choi, Sirkka's radish pickles, a great salad and her cherry canten with whipped cream and berries for dessert, enhanced by our new gelato place's passion fruit sorbetto. Not bad. A 2001 Domaine la Millière CDP and a 200 Hilberg-Pasquero Barbera "Bricco Gatti" both did well by this good, honest food.