Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Red

Spaghetti Alle Vongole Rosso_DSC2862

What’s on the menu is determined by what’s on sale sometimes, rather than what you’d like to have for dinner. The vine tomato was on special pricing at a near by market – 99 cent per pound. I doubt out of season tomatoes have full flavor but they looked so darn cute! It’s time to replenish lycopene in my body?

I don’t know much about Italian but I think rosso means red and the type of pasta dish using clams is called vongole. This is not a complicated recipe though you need to give plenty of time for the clams to spit sand out before cooking so obtain clams the day before. Biting into sandy clams is an unpleasant experience of course! In that case, you may spit discretely into your napkin.

Here is easy way to remove sand from clams – prepare a deep casserole dish by inserting a drainage rack. Lay the clams in a single layer. Pour enough salt water (1 Tablespoon salt dissolved in every 500cc water) to cover most of its body but leave the top of the shell slightly exposed. Put a long chopstick or ruler across the casserole dish (this will prevent the newspaper from falling into the dish). Cover with 3-4 layers of newspaper on top. Leave it in a dark place for at least 1 hour but overnight if you can as you will have more success. Clean the clam’s shell with a stiff vegetable brush under running water. See a similar method here. _DSC2813

Ingredients and instructions for 2-3 servings (print recipe here)

For Homemade tomato sauce yield approximately 4 cups Note: you need only 2 cups from this. Refrigerate the rest for later use.

  • 1/2 medium onion minced
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  • 6 medium fresh tomatoes; cook in boiling water for 1 minute then immediately plunge in ice cold water to peel skin. Finely chop them and reserve the liquid_DSC2818_DSC2819
  • Olive oil 2 Tablespoons
  • Dry basil 1 teaspoon or fresh basil chopped 3 Tablespoons
  • Salt
  1. Heat olive oil in a thick pan at medium heat. Add onion and cook until transparent. Do not brown.
  2. Add basil and when it gets fragrant add chopped tomatoes and liquid. Simmer till soft 20 – 25 minutes.
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  3. Crush the tomato with potato musher or immersion blender for smoother texture then salt to taste.Note: add a can of tomato sauce (1/2 cup to 1 cup) to enhance the flavor if you prefer stronger taste
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For Vongole

  • Olive oil 3 Tablespoons
  • Garlic 2 cloves minced
  • Anchovies (I used oil pack) 4
  • Red dried whole hot pepper 1-2
  • Clams 15 to 25
  • White wine 4 Tablespoons
  • Homemade tomato sauce (recipe above) 2 cups.
  • Spaghetti noodle 10-15 oz.
  • Dry or fresh parsley (optional)
  1. Start boiling plenty of water with 2-3 Tablespoons salt in a large pot for spaghetti. Cook spaghetti al dente and reserve 1/4 cup of cooking water.
  2. In a large frying pan heat olive oil at low heat. Add garlic, anchovies and red pepper. Chop up anchovies while sautéing; cook about 5 minutes to infuse red pepper into oil. Do not brown garlic._DSC2837_DSC2841
  3. When the garlic starts getting aromatic, put in the sand-purged clams then pour wine in. Turn the heat up to high to evaporate alcohol. Remove red pepper and discard
    ._DSC2842
  4. Lower the heat to medium. Add home made tomato sauce and cook until clams start opening up.
    _DSC2846
  5. Add cooked spaghetti plus reserved cooking water if needed to thin the sauce. _DSC2854
  6. Toss gently to coat spaghetti with tomato sauce. Sprinkle with parsley and serve hot. Buon appetito!_DSC2861

 

Around corner from Living Room Theater in downtown Portland where we viewed a Japanese film called ‘Like Father, Like Son’ we stopped by for an early supper at Boxer Ramen.IMG_0984My choice of tonkotsu ramen was (almost ) a knock out. The pork belly had a nice jab to it.IMG_0982Whimsical interior I liked. IMG_0978IMG_0980 The movie was thought provoking and had its charm. My husband started crying in the middle of the movie. I pretended not to notice. IMG_0985

The multi talented singer/actor Masaharu Fukyuyama produced many hit songs. I’m huge fan of his and have several CDs. Click above to enjoy one of my favorite music video of his. Have a beautiful week!

31 comments:

  1. Hi Nippon Nin,

    Cooking your spaghetti alle vongole rosso with "cheap" tomatoes?? Having this delicious spaghetti like yours in most restaurants will cost a fortune. Nevertheless, I don't think that you should put a price tag on your delicious food... It looks pretty priceless to enjoy. Beautiful! :D

    Zoe

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  2. this looks wonderful your a fab cook

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    1. Thank you Rebecca. A fab cook? You're too generous.

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  3. 宇和島屋さんで 大きなアサリがお目見えのころとなりますね。
    春の香りが漂う 美味しそうな一品です!

    ユタでは ハマグリの冷凍ものが手に入りますが アサリの生は入手不可能です。
    オレゴンはその点いいですよね。 桜も美しいし。

    氷水の中のトマトさんも気持ちよさそう。
    もう春ですね~ 春ですね。
    Kemi~のブログいつも素敵です!

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    1. ありがとうございます。 ほんとあさり大好きです。 食べ過ぎです。 へへ。

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  4. Your pasta looks great and the ramen too. The movie looks like one I would like, and I really enjoyed the music video . . . so beautiful.

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    1. Thank you Jalna. Thank you for checking out his Music video. Isn't he dreamy?

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  5. Haven't had clams for years...your post brought good memories of the past...your red spaghetti with clams looks extra good !

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  6. This is my father's favorite dish! You made one fine pasta meal!

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    1. Thank you Katerina. This dish is very satisfying and homey. I like vongole bianco dish too.

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  7. Marvelous! I'd love to taste that dish (I've never had vongole)...

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  8. I have never made spaghetti alle vongole becuse of the sand "danger". Now I know what to do, Thank you! Your bowl of spaghetti looks amazing!
    It's really incredible: this film has been shown in one of my city's cinemas for several weeks now and I almost went to see it last weekend. I love Kore Eda (I remember his Afterlife was one of the most moving films I have ever seen in my life but I like his other films too).
    Your ramen seems amazing. I like tonkotsu version, but it's too fussy to make at home so I content myself with chicken stock ramens. I envy you such a Japanese day! (Here I could only dream of ramen restaurant...).

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    1. I saw your recent ramen post just now. You did such a fine job. I have not seen the movie Kare Eda but I would love to see that.thanks for the info. I appreciate your kind comment very much.

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  9. Hands down, of all the tomatoes, the vine tomatoes are my favorite.

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    1. Thank you my lady. The vine tomato I purchased was not bad at all. I love to make it again with fresh picked ones from my garden in Summer.

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  10. え?福山雅治の新しい映画?知らなかったーー!是非観たい!チェックします。明美さんも福山雅治ファンなんて、可愛い!ボンゴレおいしそう。お料理してる写真から見てもおいしそうだし。それからラーメン!やっぱり冬はいいですよね。明美さんと一緒にいつか美味しい物食べたいです。

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    1. とてもいい映画だったと思います。 そうなの、福山さんは同じ長崎だし、以前からファンです。 彼のドラマ、ガリレオとかおもしろいですよ。コメントありがとう。

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  11. Have a lovel yweek and thanks for visiting my blog!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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    1. Thanks again Rosa. I can't wait to try your cinnamon rolls.

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  12. Oh my heaven! Fantastic looking. Masaharu Fukyuyama - handsome ... heee..heee..

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    1. Isn't he gorgeous? I really liked the movie too. Thank you for your comment.

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    2. Where did my comment go? Sorry let's try it again...Thank you for agreeing with me that he is handsome. Thank you for your comment.

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  13. The pasta looks so nice! I cooked with clams before but always ended up "sandy" dish. Maybe I did the wrong ratio about the salty water. Will definitely try out the recipe next time when I see a batch of fresh calms at the market. Thanks for sharing. :)

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    1. Thank you very much. Your blog has many good recipes. I may try one of them tonight...bulgogi pizza sounds so good.

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  14. Yum. Add noodles to anything and count me in.

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    1. Thanks again. And thank you for your honest book review. Very helpful.

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  15. Now, here I have a problem. Your dish looks really lovely... cookbook-worthy, but I always find it so annoying to eat something when you have edible mixed with non-edible... like spaghetti mixed with shells. Not really a big deal... means you can't go crazy with your fork and have to make sure you don't stab a shell through. I'm being silly I'm sure - of course I could never refuse such a lovely dish if I was served it... I guess I'm just not used to eating food with shellfish added in like this!

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    1. Ha ha ha ha ha!!! You're so amazing! Thank you for your comment!

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