Pasta Moon

Half Moon Bay, California, October 25, 2012—

WHAT WAS IT Thomas Wolfe wrote? "You can't go home again"? One insists on trying, of course…

I've wanted to return to this place for probably twenty years, after a pleasant dinner here all that time ago, and tonight finally managed, after a fine ten-miler over the hill from Rockaway Beach, to the north. And in fact it's still pleasant, though much more sophisticated than before, and more expensive… like so much else in our lives…

I began with this delicious Ribollita, a minestrone-like soup involving bread, kale, chard, kohlrabi, zucchini, carrots, and beans, all cooked up with garlic in a vegetable stock, garnished with olive oil and Parmesan cheese — a fine hearty dish after a fairly hard day.

My tagliatelle Bolognese was almost as good, the pasta a perfect consistency, the sauce only a little too heavy on tomato. Dessert: tiramisu, a little tired, I thought.

Inzolia/Grillo, Ilgiglio, 2010: crisp and refreshing; Cannonau, Juannisola (Sardinia), 2009: rich and lasting

• Pasta Moon Restaurant, 315 Main Street, Half Moon Bay, California; 650-726-5125


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