Sixty-second Post ~ Spaghetti alle Vongole

It started with a photo... While looking at a friend's travel photos, a picture of a pasta and seafood dish caught my eye and captivated my soul as only a foodie's soul could be captivated. She told me that it was a common dish in Japan, where there seems to be a prevalence of authentic Italian cooking (who knew?). The dish's name is spaghetti alle vongole, and is Neapolitan in origin. I decided that I must try it for myself.

So, with a tweaked recipe from the UK in hand (this was an international venture), a willing test subject at the ready (my boyfriend, John) and a Wegman's shopping list, I set out to recreate the meal that had captured me so (with the hopes that it would taste as lovely as it looked).

Here's what you'll need to take this virtual trip to the sunny Mediterranean shores of Napoli.

~ fresh clams (for two: about a pound or so - or maybe more - I got littlenecks from Wegmans as they are the sweetest)
~ spaghetti
~ dry white wine (enough for cooking and for drinking - I recommend buying a bottle to serve as the beverage and a mini bottle for cooking. Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi is a good single-serve wine for both drinking and cooking)
~ garlic
~ flat leaf (AKA Italian) parsley
~ scallions
~ lemon juice
~ extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
~ chili powder (cayenne)
~ white pepper
~ course ground sea salt
~ butter

To add a little more to the dish, I opted to roast some garlic that could be spread on a baguette. So, for the side that really compliments the dish with savory nuttiness:

~ one bulb of garlic
~ baguette
~ EVOO
~ coarse ground sea salt

Peel the garlic cloves and generously coat in EVOO and season with coarse ground sea salt. Wrap the whole bundle up in tin foil and roast in a toaster oven (or heating apparatus of your choice) on 400 degrees for about a half hour. Start this ahead of time.

Cook your spaghetti as per usual in salted water. As it's cooking, chop up some parsley and one large scallion. Set to the side. If you have a sous chef, ask him to slice the baguette and put it in a bowl and rinse the clams.

In a pan with a well-fitting lid, start some EVOO, lemon juice, two cloves of garlic and scallions gently sizzling.

Add a bit of cayenne - I used less than the quarter teaspoon that was called for, as I have a lower spicy threshold than most. I like to taste my food thoroughly, and I find that extreme heat can detract from that. Others love this taste/sensation, so you be the judge and add as much or as little as you like. The dish itself is typified by having a bit of heat (hence why it is refreshing on a hot Mediterranean day) but it would be delicious without it, as well.

Add the white wine, parsley, and clams.

:: PAUSE ::

The recipe from the UK calls for steaming the clams in less than two tablespoons of white wine. Obviously, American clams must be thirstier than British ones. That or the original recipe doesn't intend to yield a lot of broth.

The liquid that comes from shellfish as they open and cook is referred, in the foodie world, as "liquor." This is an appropriate name for it, as it is about as intoxicating and delicious as some finely distilled spirit. I like a lot of it. As you may recall, my mussel recipe yields more than enough, and is intended to be mopped up with the baguette after all the mussels are consumed.

I was sort of expecting the same deal with this recipe, but even after allowing for the pasta to absorb some of the liquid, there was not a lot left for dipping. To alleviate this tragedy, I would recommend adding a good deal more white wine to the pan, and definitely more clams that what was called for (6-8 per person).

:: UNPAUSE ::

So, whether or not you have gone the route of more broth, add your parsley and clams, season with salt and pepper, and slap on the lid for four to five minutes. At this point, your pasta should be sitting in a colander in your sink. Your garlic should be done, so unwrap the luscious gems and mash them up with salt to taste.

By now your timer should be going off, so take the lid off, revel in the aroma, and dump your pasta into the pan and toss it all around.

Serve in big bowls with crusty bread spread with roasted garlic. I paired this meal with a Soave from Vincentini Agostino, which was bright with citrus to compliment the garlic and scallions, light enough not to overpower the delicate clams, and cool in the face of the cayenne. It was a perfect partner for this dish, and made this the perfect meal for a hot summer evening!

Yours in the love of good food and wine (and the derring-do to take a culinary leap based solely on someone's vacation photo),
AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Fifty-ninth Post ~ Breaded Pork Tenderloins with Herb Pasta

Tonight's dinner was a snap to prepare and filled my apartment with the wonderful aroma of fresh herbs - perfect for a stormy spring night!

Here's what you'll need for this quick and easy meal:

~ Pork tenderloin cut into 1" thick medallions

~ Italian breadcrumbs

~ Grated Parmesan cheese

~ Fresh herbs of your choice (I chose parsley, rosemary, thyme and basil)

~ Olive oil

~ Pasta of your choice

~ Ground sea salt

~ Tomato

Get your water boiling (with salt and olive oil, if you wish).

Chop up some fresh herbs. I am becoming incredibly attached to the fresh herb section in Wegmans. You can buy the prettily packaged ones for $1.99 or a massive rubber-banded bunch for $1.29. I usually go the route of the massive bunch, because if you wrap them in plastic and store them in the veggie keeper of your fridge, they last for weeks. I have far better success with that route than I do with potted plants. I am a plant serial killer. But that's another story for another time...

So I chopped up some rosemary, thyme, parsley and basil. Mmmm, the aroma! Positively intoxicating. Dice up a bit of tomato and set that to the side. Next, slice the pork into medallions. By now, your water should be well on its way to boiling, so dump in your pasta and set the timer for 10 minutes.

Start a good dash of olive oil heating in a skillet. Mix one part Italian breadcrumbs and one part grated parm in a prep bowl. Coat the pork medallions in this heavenly mixture and set them into the hot oil. Turn the burner on low and let them cook until they are done halfway up. Carefully turn them.

Drain the pasta and mix in the herbs and tomato. You may wish to heat it again for just a moment to let all the flavors meld. The tenderloin medallions should be done by now; serve it on a plate garnished with some extra parm (and extra sea salt, if you want!).

I enjoyed tonight's meal with the rest of my Negroamaro Rosato. It paired beautifully with the meal, complimenting the fresh herbs and turning fruity in the face of the salt and parmesan. A delightful pairing made even more delightful by the fact that I drank it out of one of my new Riedel glasses - a splurge from a recent cruise on the Celebrity Millennium. My wine appreciation has reached new heights!

Yours in the love of food and wine,
AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Fifty-seventh Post ~ Balsamic Chicken and Mushrooms with Stilton Cream Sauce

Yes - it's as you suspected. I've got all this stilton left over from yesterday's Blueberry Chambourcin Port Fest and I'm just itching to cook with it. That and I want to have a meal worthy of the final glass of port!

Here's what you'll need to make tonight's 10-minute meal:

~ Chicken tenderloin

~ Mushrooms

~ Garlic (jarred or fresh)

~ Balsamic vinegar

~ Sea salt

~ Olive oil

~ Pasta of your choice

~ Stilton (or similar blue)

~ Cream

~ Fresh (or dried) thyme

Start a pot of water boiling. Slice up some mushrooms and start them sautéing with some garlic, salt and olive oil. Add a dash of balsamic vinegar. At this point your water should be boiling, so add your pasta and start watching the clock.

Cut the tenderloins into bite-sized pieces. Your mushrooms should be moving right along at this point, so add the chicken, another dash of salt, olive oil and balsamic. As soon as the chicken and mushrooms are cooked through, set them to the side in a prep bowl.

In the same pan (d0n't worry about rinsing) add about a tablespoon of stilton and some cream. You don't need too much of this sauce. What I made for my meal was enough to just coat the bottom of my stick-free skillet. So not much.

Once the sauce is nicely melded and your pasta is done, drain the pasta and put it on a plate. Top with the chicken and mushrooms from the prep bowl. Top that with a bit of fresh thyme.

The food paired beautifully with the blueberry chambourcin port and the meal itself came together nicely, too. The flavors held their own - the chicken and mushrooms were flavorful in their own right, but also were accented by the bit of stilton. The thyme added a nice fresh note to it, and it has become my all-time (all-thyme?) favorite herb to keep on hand!

Yours in the love of good food and wine,

AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Fourteenth Post: Hamburger and Mac & Cheese ~ All Grown Up!

Here's a classic comfort favorite that's given a new spin with some cheese that you might have on hand (if you're a fan of Wegman's cheese flights, which I am) and some marinade.

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This was also a good dinner for tonight because it was minutes in prep time, which was good, as I have a pitiful puppy on the sofa demanding attention - Ginny was spayed today, and it has taken some wind out of her normally full sails...

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So, here's what you'll need for tonights quick, easy and tasty meal:
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For the hamburger:

~ 1 ground beef patty

~ herb marinade

~ basil (optional)

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For the mac & cheese:

~ pasta (I use the term "mac" loosely: penne worked just as well
~ cheese you have on hand (I used Beemster classic, sage derby and Yancy's XXX sharp and a little parm)

~ butter

~ white wine

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One sick puppy (optional)

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Get your water boiling and put some marinade directly on your hamburger patty in the pan. Don't start it heating just yet. While your water is boiling, sit with optional puppy. Once water starts boiling, toss in pasta. Sit with puppy. Smell scorching pasta and race in to actually stir it once or twice. In between, sit with puppy.

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Once you've got a few minutes to go on your pasta, start the cheese and butter melding. Pour in a bit of white wine. Check on puppy. Stir sauce and drain pasta into collander. Check on puppy. Start the heat under your hamburger and marinade. Check on puppy. At this time, pour your pasta into the pan with the (by now) creamy, cheesey sauce. Let it simmer. Flip burger. Check on puppy. Flip burger again, toss pasta around and put it all on a plate. Top burger with fresh basil, if you like. I am getting to enjoy basil on pretty much everything. Watch, I'll be on Medical Mysteries with some strange basil-induced overdose.

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This meal came together nicely. The burger was nice and juicy (the trick, I've learned, is a very low flame). I think the pasta would have been better with a little bit of cream, as it wasn't quite as "saucy" as I had hoped. It still tasted very good, though.
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Check on puppy.

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Pour self a glass of Norton Cab to hopefully chill out a bit.

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Check on puppy.

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Enjoy meal and wine while sitting next to puppy.

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Yours in the love of good food and wine and the stressful moments in life that they help us through,

AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.

Second Post - Flavorful Pasta: Packs a punch like a meal

Hey! So tonight is one of those nights where I'd be really tempted to pour myself a bowl of cereal and chow down, but I'm low on milk, and I'd cry if I didn't have enough for my breakfast tomorrow. My quiet breakfasts of coffee, cereal and a good book are kind of my kick-start for my day. But I digress.

This is one of those meals that I save up for nights like these. It's a mock-alfredo that can be made with minimal effort.

Set water to boiling in a moderately sized pot. Sprinkle salt in the water if that's your thing. I'm German, so salt and butter are kinda like foodgroups for us.

While your water is heating up, get out the other things you'll need:
~1 cup pasta (any kind. Really. I like pasta primavera because it seems like it would have more nutrients in it than your average pasta, and because it's pretty. But that's just me.)
~Parmesan/Romano/Grated Cheese
~One egg
~Spices: I like oregano and basil
~Olive oil
~1 clove garlic

Any time left, wash your face, lay out your clothes for the next day, surf FaceBook, whatever.
When the water is rolling, dump in the pasta. Stir around, leave a wooden spoon in the pot with it so it won't boil over. This just works. Trust me. Now go back to YouTube or whatever you were doing. Kill time for 10 minutes, because that's how long the pasta will take. Peel your eyes off the latest puppy video every so often to stir your pasta so it doesn't stick.

After the pasta is done to the doneness you prefer, drain it (I like to drain the water directly into the bowl I'm going to serve it in. It heats the bowl for you. Just please don't burn yourself or break your dish with the temperature change. I warn, because I'm good at injuring myself during inocuous household tasks).

Stir in a bit of olive oil to keep it from congealing, and spice it up with oregano and basil. I love pulverizing the spices in my hands before putting them in. I think it makes them more aromatic.

PAUSE

About garlic. I recently discovered that garlic's spiciness varies based on how you cook it. Some of you might find this to be a duh-ism, but this is news to me, coming from a family that didn't cook much with garlic. I was recently at a Cuban restaurant in New San Juan, and we were served the most delicious garlic bread. It was extremely hot (as in spicey). I asked the waiter what the bread was seasoned with. "Ajo," I was told. "Y..." I prompted. "Ajo. Solamente ajo." Got it. Just garlic. Turns out, it was fairly raw garlic, which made the bread really hot. I experimented with garlic in this pasta to see if I could garner the same effect. It is so. If you want your garlic to spice up your pasta, wait and add it right at the very end. If you want it cooked some to sweeten it, mix it in with the oil as mentioned above.

UNPAUSE

So whether or not you've added garlic at this point is up to you, but let's move on to the egg, shall we? Put the pot back on the heat for a moment or so to get the oil hot. Take it off the heat, and crack the egg into the pasta. Directly in. Mix it around with your spoon a bit. Now, add copious amounts of cheese. It should mix with the egg and make a nice creamy sauce. If you want, put it back on the stove for a moment, stirring it around, savoring the aromas, letting it all meld.

Pour in the pre-heated bowl, and serve with a glass of wine. The nice thing about this recipe is that a lot of wines go beautifully with it.

I'm eating mine tonight with a Spanish shiraz-tempranillo (Berberana vineyards). After a blind-taste, I'd say this: The old-world earthiness comes through as velvety and rich. It has ripe strawberry undertones. It pairs well with the pasta, and heats up the spice of the garlic wonderfully. It's just tannic enough, also, to cut the richness of the faux-alfredo. The salt in the pasta (should you choose to add more, as I do) brings out the berry flavors of the wine. All in all, a happy pair.

And that, my friends, beats a bowl of cereal.

Yours in the love of relaxing with good food and wine in one's tummy,
AL

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The blogger is not an experienced chef. She takes no responsibility for the quality of the meals prepared while following her advice. Use your own judgment regarding cooking times and proper food handling.