Vermicelli alle Vongole Fujite

Name: Vermicelli alle Vongole Fujite
Yield: serves 6
Ingredients: 2 large, ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped; 2 teaspoons fine sea salt; 1 ounce salt pork or pancetta; 4 fat cloves garlic, peeled and crushed; 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil; 1 small, dried red chile pepper, crushed, or 1/3 to 1/2 teaspoon dried chile flakes; 1 pound vermicelli or other thin string pasta; Coarse sea salt for the water

January 24, 2012

This is the poorest of dishes for the days when the seas are as empty as one’s belly, when even the clams have forsaken one. Fashioned from seawater—sometimes bits of seaweed—a tomato or two, some fat, firm garlic, a dried red chile, and a thread of good oil or a spoonful of sweet, rendered pork fat, hoarded from an easier day.

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