Yes, round two with my world famous spaghetti with Italian sausage with creamy tomato sauce. Still top notch even as a leftover. I credit the perseverance of tastiness here to my keeping all the parts separate in the fridge. Sauce separate from noodles separate from sausage.
Serve it all up on a plate and microwave for several minutes and voilà.
Beeristically, I was determined to go another round with an IPA. Last time it was Sweetwater’s hop bomb with prominent flavors of peach and grapefruit. So today I called upon Harpoon IPA, still with a bit citrus but much heavier on the floral and spicy notes you’d expect from English ales. Its hop profile is substantially different from Sweetwater IPA and thus a good test of whether this particular dish has any hope with IPAs more generally.
The verdict? Not much hope for IPAs with this one.
What’s really odd is that after the first bite and first sip I liked it. It seemed to be working and I thought I had a winner. This persisted for a few bites until it crossed a line, and then there was an unpleasant clash of flavors.
Surprising to me that the clash didn’t surface until several bites into the meal. I have no explanation for this phenomenon. But once it surfaced, it was clear I needed to set the beer down and abandon the pairing.
This dish was one of my better works of food art in recent weeks. I would really hate to see it polished off without a good pairing. I still have a fair amount left for another meal. I’ve decided the next time I go a round with this I’ll bring a Belgian tripel to the table. I’m utterly confident that will be stellar.
Not tomorrow, as I’ll be in Montgomery most of the day, culminating in the Free The Hops Legislative Reception tomorrow evening. But Thursday is a good candidate. We’ll see how things go.
Tags: Harpoon Brewing, IPA, spaghetti
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