Thank you to our friends who chose to celebrate their fifth anniversary with a special dinner: lasagna, paired with our Terrestre wine and Baldassarre, from Torciano Winery.
We're delighted to have been chosen for such a special day. Here is what they wrote on their blog:
Their story
A wine tasting to remember
When we took our trip to Tuscany this past May, we visited the Tenuta Torciano vineyard in San Gimignano, where we enjoyed a fabulous wine tasting and lunch.
The main course at lunch was a fantastic lasagna with Bolognese sauce, made from Mamma Torciano's recipe and served with a drizzle of truffle oil. It was so good that it not only inspired us to try making it ourselves, but as we thought about what a wonderful dinner it would be to make and share, it also gave us further encouragement to launch Two at the Table.
Cooking it at home
The lasagna was paired with a number of red wines, but the one that stood out most was the 2006 Terrestre. This wine was way out of our usual price range, but we figured, who cares, we're on vacation! Plus, we thought it would be a lot of fun to enjoy it again at home, ideally on our fifth anniversary.
So we set on making Torciano's Lasagna with Meat Sauce on Saturday. (The recipe link takes you to everything you need for this dish, including home-made pasta, if you're feeling super motivated!)
The lasagna turned out great — maybe not as good as Mamma Torciano's, but absolutely delicious. The pasta was cooked perfectly, not quite al dente but not too soft either. The Bolognese was thick with lots of flavor from the vegetables. The béchamel gave everything a nice creaminess, a huge step up from the ricotta we'd used in the past. The lasagna paired perfectly with the wine, bold and fruity, more than a match for this rich, heavy dish. We opened a second bottle too, a 2007 Torciano Baldassarre, not quite as good as the 2006 Terrestre but still very good.
An evening that ended sweetly
We finished the night with several rounds of an Italian card game called Seven and a Half, then enjoyed some almond cantucci with a little Vin Beato, as is the custom in Tuscany.
Our anniversary dinner was wonderful and more than worth the effort. We have a busy work week ahead, so it will be nice to have some leftovers to fall back on — there's even enough to bring some for lunch one day this week too!
Many thanks for the beautiful article — we hope to see you soon here in Tuscany!
