Paste with the vongole

From Jon Carroll's column in the San Francisco Chronicle. "Vongole" are clams. "Prezzemolo" is parsley. No clue about "ciotolina." The strangest part is the translation of "sale" as "knows them" instead of "salt."

"Ingredients for 4 persons: 300 gr of long paste (spaghetti, vermicelli), 500 gr of vongole (to choice, veraci or not), 2 segments of garlic, olive oil spoons, 1 tritato spoon of prezzemolo, knows them, pepper.

"Scaldate 1 dl of water and, when bubbles, gettatevi a fist of knows them large. Left to bubble until knows will be melted them. Prepared 3 L of cold water and you become diluted the solution of knows them. You dip the vongole and leaves them you to rest for approximately 3 hours so that they eliminate the contained sand in the valves.

"Captured the vongole from the water and trasferitele in one frying pan. Scaldatele to alive fire until will be all open ones, removing man hand those already opened in order to leave space the others. You remove the molluschi from the valve and assembles them in one ciotolina to you.

"If it appeals to, you can leave some vongole to you entire. You always remember yourselves to discard those that have not been opened.

"Poured on molluschi the liquid contained in the frying pan, filtering it through a driven in weft strainer that will withhold the eventual sand remained on the bottom.

"Lessate the paste in abundant salata water while prepared the gravy, holding account that in order to complete the gravy is necessary approximately 3 or 4 minuteren. Scaldate the oil in a frying pan and fatevi to soffriggere the garlic segments sbuccia you and leggermente it crushes to you.

"When the garlic is gilded, it discards it to you. If preferred, you can sminuzzare the garlic and leave it in the gravy: it does not make you to gild it too much since it would become amarognolo.

"Jetties the molluschi in the frying pan with their water and left to cook to alive fire for a pair of minuteren. Salate leggermente and joined to the tritato end the prezzemolo. Flavored the paste drained to the tooth and you add a little milled black pepper to the moment.

"Notes:

"Someone will think 'but because all this traffic, enough to make to open the vongole directly in the frying pan with the oil and the garlic.' Yes, but if is sand also in a single vongola is all the plate that is ruined.

"If preferred the red gravy in (this over is in white man) prepared a tomato sauce and simply adds the vongole open and removed from the shell, with their water and continued the baking for little minuteren."

"Dragons"

Dangerous
Reckless
Active
Growls
Outrageous
Nasty
Scary
Dragons!
– by D.

I'd post a picture from the First-Grade Poetry Reading if I could find the camera cable. Maybe tomorrow.

The afternoon was very fine, 70, warm enough for reading outside, and that's what I did. I read Buber on the back deck, while a strikingly beautiful bluejay explored the newly mown lawn. Then I read a bit of Frankfurt in my usual reading spot but didn't much enjoy it, so I switched to Friends, Lovers, Chocolate and finished that instead. I guess I liked it, though I really don't know why - our heroine, Isabel, was downright stupid and awful much of the time.

LJ job transitions day!

Whee! In the last day or so, among my LJ friends...
- one was laid off
- one lost most of her job funding
- one is leaping with joy at being able to quit her job
- one is interviewing for a job on Monday
- one got a new job

That's really a bit much, all at once, and it doesn't even include those with fellowship news. Good luck to y'all!