Spaghetti with asari (clams), shirauo (little white fish) and arugula at Pizzeria Matsuhisa in Denenchofu, Tokyo. Someday, I will open a wafu (Japanese-style) pasta shop in Oakland.

I can’t believe I just spent another weekend in a kolonihus (colony house). But that’s how the Scandinavians roll and who can say no to a pumpkin ravioli punch?

My Icelandic friend’s friend has a cute little cottage in Copenhagen which she visits regularly on weekends and slowly tries to repair and build into a fabulous little summer home with an attached vegetable garden. It’s nice and quiet, and even though summer’s definitely over and fall has arrived with its cold climate and evil winds, a little Sunday lunch inside is no problem when you have a heater and a little gas kitchen.

So, last night my friends made their own ravioli filled with pumpkin. The above photo was taken during the ravioli production. Inserted to the left are fabulously carved Halloween pumpkins for inspiration and to set the atmosphere. From top: Jack Nightingale (Nightmare before Christmas), the Death Star, and Sarah Palin.

I love the shape and colour of pumpkins and I always dreamed of experiencing a real Halloween in America, since there’s no real Halloween here.

Well ok, in the past few years desperate stores and evil food chains have tried to import the holiday as an excuse to sell new and improved burgers and themed McNuggets. And some parents might buy their kids some stuff to wear and shove them around to beg for candy, but it’s not Danish tradition, and to me it’s fake if you’re outside the USA.

It’s a windy, cloudy day outside and it’s going to rain soon.

Inside the little shed’s kitchen, lunch is prepared.

Everything is found material and built into a small house. Love the little single-glass windows, the raw plank walls and the glass of flower water.

My friends brought the still uncooked ravioli along to the house and boiled them a few minutes before serving:

The plates are lined up, small pieces of spinach is laid on top of the ravioli along with freshly shredded parmesan.

Sage butter is heated and poured over the dish:

Bon appetit!

The yellow pumpkin meat almost looks like fried eggs:

The ravioli is great – together with the spinach, pumpkin, parmesan and sage butter it melts on the tongue into a savoury, juicy warm mouthful.

The clayware salad bowl looks like someone squeezed it too hard, poor thing. But the contents are great–avocado, Danish salad leaves and Greek feta cheese:

An expensive white wine from Portugal is sipped from big bowl glasses. As usual I don’t know much about wine, but it tastes fresh and light and matches the dish perfectly.

On my way home from the colony I walked by a baker’s window. It was official Breast Cancer Day in Denmark yesterday and to show their support, the baker made these adorable $13 titty cakes.

“Støt Brysterne Kage” (support the breasts cake)

And who’d say no to eating cake and nibbling on nipples for charity?

When I say Liguria, I’m talking about the Ligurian coast in the Italian Riviera. Topographically different from the rest of Italy, the coastline is scattered with mountainous cliffs that drop straight down into the ocean, and hidden beaches are nestled away in unspoiled coves. Idyllic Santa Margherita and Portofino were the two stops for us in the region. Cinque Terre was also on the list but our attempt to visit the popular cluster of fishing towns embedded into the cliffside was thwarted by a train strike and no ferry service.

The Ligurian region is responsible for two particularly well-known foodstuffs: pesto and cioppino. Yeah, yeah, “Cioppino was invented in San Francisco”, but it really was the work of Italian fishermen that brought the concept over from Genova, after a long-standing tradition of using bits from the day’s leftover catch to make their lunch right on the boat.

A regional dish most of us are far less familiar with is called trofiette liguri, a hand-rolled pasta coated with Genovese pesto.

The trofiette noodle is made by pulling off a small bit of pasta dough and then rolling it along the counter once with your palm. I had this dish at a popular restaurant called Da Michele in Santa Margherita although let it be said that the town itself is very small and most of the restaurants are casual, family-run eateries.  You’ll find the same in Portofino except at a much higher price point. 

Portofino is one of the most exceptional places I have ever visited. While extremely small and private, it’s a popular getaway for the beyond-affluent.  Only a few miles away from Santa Margherita, it’s easy to catch a small ferry for a quick ride along the peninsula.

There isn’t much to do there but walk around, drink, eat, drink some more, enjoy the view, and then get back on the ferry or take a cab back to Santa Margherita. The first place we stopped to have drinks was at La Gritta where they had a small, floating platform tied to the dock. 

Notice the proximity to the water from the floating platform.

I think one of my favorite things about Italy in general is that every time you sit down to have a drink, they automatically hand you bowls of snacks like chips, olives, and nuts. The nicer the place, the better the offerings. Keep in mind, if you’re wondering what the coperto is on your check, it means a cover charge just for occupying a seat so I loosely refer to the snacks as copertos. Every time I paid the bill throughout Italy I would say “damn copertos.”

After drinks and snacks at La Gritta, we moved down further along the dock for lunch at O Magazín for the linguini con vongole (clams) because what better place could you have this?

Fresh, light, buttery and seasoned with fresh herbs, it was a perfectly executed dish. 

I did have gelato after this but dropped the entire thing on the ground like an idiot. However, while walking around gelato-less, we noticed this bag of bread outside a restaurant door.

We learned that this is the way restaurants pick up the bread they’re going to serve for the evening. The bread makers put the bread in the bags and leave it outside for restaurateurs to pick up.

During our last night in Santa Margherita, we went to L’insolita Zuppa, another small, family-owned eatery. It was packed. We started with a yellowtail appetizer because the menu led us to believe it was going to be a crudo with a hint of citrus. The fish was actually completely cured and served with blood orange and fennel. It looked completely unappetizing but was incredibly delicate and light in flavor.

The rest of the food served was good enough but had some really odd presentations, not completely unlike some places I’ve gone to in Russian River (Chez Marie’s, anyone?).  One example would be the soup served in the fishbowl. Surprisingly delicious albeit, um… avant-garde in plating.

Our time in Liguria was short, and because of the train strike and lack of ferries, our exposure to unique local specialties was limited. After walking miles and miles across the cobblestones of ancient cities throughout Italy, these sleepy port towns of Liguria were a welcome respite. Don’t plan on doing much if you ever visit, but do plan on visiting if you can.

DA MICHELE
Largo Amendola 17, 16038
Santa Margherita
T: (+39) 0185283660

LA GRITTA
Calata Marconi, 18
16034 Portofino
T: (+39) 0185 269126

O MAGAZÍN
34 Calata Marconi, Portofino
T: (+39) 0185 269 178

I try not to buy many kitchen gadgets, especially since the mandolin was such a big mistake. Not only did I almost lose my finger, but there’s not much use for it. I have a stand mixer that I use all the time, and the meat grinder attachment is awesome, especially in the summertime for homemade burgers.

I tried to make homemade pasta a couple of weeks ago, and completely failed. Since many fresh pasta recipe says, “You can either use rolling pin or pasta machine,” I tried using a rolling pin. It didn’t roll… Whatever I did was wrong, and the dough was more elastic than pizza dough, and didn’t stretch at all. In the end, I cut it all up anyways, and dunked it in boiling water. It took 10 minutes to cook the damn thing, and was totally inedible. Failure.

So I contemplated whether I should buy a $150 stand mixer pasta attachment, or an old school pasta maker for $34.99.  After pondering this for a while, I decided to go with the pasta maker for obvious economical reasons. Unless you are an Italian mama who needs to make pasta every day of the week, there’s no need to spend $150 for attachments, don’t you think?

Let me tell you. I LOVE IT! It is soooo much fun. I looked around a lot of sites for dough recipes, and ended up using one that came with the instruction of the machine. 2 1/2 cup of flour, 4 eggs, pinch of salt. That’s it.

Just like how you see it on TV or magazines, you make a well with flour, drop eggs and salt, and mix and knead until the dough is shiny.  Luckily the dough was working fine this time, and it became very shiny.

After resting the dough for like an hour, here came the fun part.

Cut the dough into 4th on floured surface, and thin it out so that it goes through the roller.

Start with the widest (dial 7), roll it out, fold in half, roll it out, fold in half.  This activity is definitely kids friendly, or any idiots who can’t cook will be able to enjoy.

It’s more like Playdough than cooking at this point. Slowly roll the dough with a tighter dial, and eventually, you will end up with this almost-see-through beauty.

Then you can cut it.  You can easily cut this with a sharp knife, but I wanted to use the fettuccine cutter. This part was so satisfying too. How easily, and evenly, you can cut pasta with this was just awesome. And it comes out in a matter of seconds.

I call this, ladies and gentleman, PASTA PORN!

I could have thinned it out even more, but don’t you think this is pretty good for a first timer?

I had frozen tomato sauce, so made meatballs, and boiled the pasta for like 4 minutes. Pasta with meatballs. It was amazing how al dente the pasta was.

Now here’s where my creative (yet crazed) kitchen brain starts to tick. Using the pasta machine, what should I make other than pasta? Yes, I will definitely make spinach pasta and other noodles, but something even crazier. Something that needs to be stretched thin, that needs to be cut evenly, without using oil (pasta machine can NOT be washed with water since they are made out of cheap metal, and any contact with water will definitely rust badly). If you can think of something out of ordinary, please let me know. I haven’t been able to come up with anything interesting so far.

Dear De Cecco, Barilla, and all other major pasta producers of the world: you should be ashamed of yourself, letting Japan come up with the smartest packaging for pasta EVER.

This one is “Mama” brand that my own mama Hideko picked up at the Japanese grocery store. Kinda ironic that she would even consider buying pasta from Japan. What can I say, though– if it makes her feel closer to her homeland by buying Western products written in Japanese typography, so be it.

And don’t knock it– SO SMART, this pasta!

First off, it is clear how anally-retentive the Japanese are by the front of the package above. It gives the EXACT diameter of each strand of pasta– this one is 1.4mm. GEEKOUT.

Here’s the ingenius part. First, the pasta comes subdivided within each package– one portion per person. The Japanese already do this for their soba and udon noodles, so why not pasta too, right?

Don’t lie, you know you always end up boiling way too much pasta, or not enough. Measuring it is not easy! It wasn’t until I moved to Italy that I learned that the amount of pasta in your hand should only be about an inch around, per person. The Mama pasta is pretty spot on, in this regard.

Now, look at the seal around each batch of pasta. It tells you, right then and there, ON THE SEAL, that the boiling time for this is five minutes. GENIUS.

Again, don’t lie– you know you always over or under-boil. Al dente is an art.

When you’re done, just seal up the pasta bag.

SO SMART. How many of you have open boxes of pasta, of various sizes and diameters, just overflowing in your pantry? Yah, me too, it’s so effing annoying. An accident just waiting to happen.

Although I refuse to ever put pasta in those cheesy glass containers that you see on kitchen countertops. What is up with that??? Can’t deal.

*Kayoko currently lives in Cupertino, CA, and can make you a slammin’ass martini. Come back every Tuesday for Packaging Whore, where she highlights smart, aesthetically-pleasing design in food packaging.

Remember when I made kimchi fried rice? It has become my staple meal when I feel ultra lazy. Read: ALL THE TIME.

So how panicked was I when I went to the kitchen yesterday to take out all the precious ingredients out of the fridge, but then realize that I was missing RICE.

Epic FAIL. As @Jerkey pointed out, “What self-respecting Japanese person does not have rice at hand at all times??”

Apparently, this Japanese person.

I literally didn’t have anything to eat other than kimchi, sausages, egg, green onions and… PASTA?!?!??? Could I do it? More importantly, should I do it? It really sounded assnasty but thought it was worth an experiment, umamimart style.

It couldn’t be far off from, say, japchae, right? Oh god, so off-course already.

Side note: the Japanese are known to add the wackiest, unheard of stuff with pasta- enough to make a Sicilian mama cry in her bed at night with shame and sorrow. See Yamahomo’s recipe with furikake here, and Yoko’s karasumi pasta with baby sea creatures here (actually, I believe this is a Sardinian dish in origin, so mama, stop crying).

Basically I did everything the same exact way as I would make the fried rice.

Sautee the kimchi, green onions, sausages.

Add the PASTA. Oh god, here we go.

I like to add extra kimchi juice cause apparently I like my pasta TRUE BLOOD SAUCY.

Even after the kimchi juice though, it was lacking the umph factor (UMAMI). So I added two god-foresaken condiments: tonkatsu sosu (Japanese worcestershire) and kewpie mayo.

Cue Sicilian mama sob sounds.

The little white glob here would be the mayo.

Let’s meditate on the grossness of these additions for a moment. Squeal if necessary.

In support of high cholesterol, I added a barely-cooked fried egg. Mmm… Shave over some parmigiano (ok, ok, this one came out of a green tube) and crack some pepper. Et voila!

And you know, it wasn’t bad!! I think the next time I feel like having noodles instead of rice (which is to say most of the time), I will make this again. Definitely do not need the tonkatsu sauce, that was so unnecessary. But the mayo gave the whole thing some depth and texture, so that was a good call.

What do you think, folks? Yay or Nay??

PS- I am just seeing that our friend Ambitious Deliciousness just made kimchi pasta earlier this month. Her’s is much prettier, but I do feel a bit more validated for making this. Holler.

*Kayoko lives in Cupertino, CA. Her sole goal in life at the moment is to be a kickass bartender. And then, take over the world by getting everyone drunk.

Since moving to California, I’ve become a bit of a drunk. I’m not sure if it’s out of boredom of living in Cupertino, in the house I grew up in, right across the street from my high school. It could be that I’m almost 30 and living with my parents. Or maybe that I’m single and totally not getting any love from these fine Silicon Valley men. Oh, I know, it’s because I bus tables for a living.

So why the hell shouldn’t I have a drink in the middle of the day? I deserve it!!! The Europeans have it right- they drink wine with their lunch and then take a nap. GENIUS.

I’ve adapted this practice into my own humble Cupertino life. I have a glass of rose or Sauvignon Blanc with my meal at noon, and I no longer feel guilty about it. I’ve completely embraced drinking mid-day, it’s awesome.

So how awesome was it when I discovered this recipe in the new Food and Wine, by Babbo pastry chef Gina DePalma: RED WINE SPAGHETTI. I felt like my prayers had been answered from the gods. I mean, why not double up on my daily alcohol intake by adding wine to my pasta water?? Makes perfect sense to me.

Add red wine to water. Recipe says 5 cups water to 3 cups wine. I made this just for myself though so just estimated and put in about 1/3 wine to 2/3 water.

Bring to boil. Add pasta.

Drain. Looks like soba noodles!!!

I sauteed with sausages (of course) and roasted peppers and garlic, adding parmesan and ground pepper in the end.

How did this taste?? Honestly, it tasted just like regular pasta. Jud-san had commented that he thought this seemed like a waste of wine, and it sorta is. I guess if you have bad wine lying around, this would be a way to subtlely add a different layer of flavor. The alcohol flavor.

At the end of the day though, if I had a decent bottle of wine, I wouldn’t pour half of it into a pot to boil pasta. I’ll drink it straight from my glass, thanks. CHIN CHIN!!!

First thing I had to do assess the fridge situation. Some stuff just needed to go, like this 3 day old salad. But fear not, Chahta loves salad!

As you can see, no utensils are needed.

So then I decided to go with the GREENS. To be honest, I’m not even sure which ones I used, but I think they are some sort of chard. I gave them a good rinse, Then wilted them up!

Then, to appease my carbo-holic guilt, I went for the wheat pasta with pesto. Now, don’t get too excited, this was the Trader Giotto’s bottle, not from scratch. I tossed it in with the greens and some of my favorite can-o-corn, then revived sourdough bread- turned into garlic toast!

Only problem: I had all this waiting for me at the end…

Some much for the one-dish wonder…

*Shannon and Gabe live with their dog Chahta, cat Hya, and turtle Wax, in Bonny Doon, CA (in the Santa Cruz Mountains.) Shannon currently teaches at UC Santa Cruz, and Gabe is an landscape painter and project manager at a habitat restoration company Central Coast Wilds. Chahta is a professional misbehaved sweetheart and squash-eater :)

Check out these ads bordering on creepy and kawaii (cute).

Religiously speaking, I am godless. I am a gluttonous heathen, afterall. If hard pressed, I suppose I would say I’m a non-practicing Buddhist, but that’s only because my dad makes me pray to his little shrine whenever I go to his house. But I refuse to chant during yoga- it annoys the hell out of me (they never tell you what you’re saying, or what exactly it’s for. It’s just nonsense).

However, deep down, I have a soft spot for all things Roman Catholic. Majestic cathedrals, Pope Jean-Paul II (I saw him once!), the Spanish Inquisition, Dante’s Inferno and Jesus all fascinate me to no end. It’s so bizarre- and I feel bad cause Catholicism has traumatized many of my friends.

So of course I was excited about celebrating the Jesus resurrection on Sunday. Easter means ham, hard boiled eggs, and springtime. Gotta love it. But my plans derailed when Troy and Kumiko called to cancel Easter dinner because they were sick. I sorta panicked, but Fumiko said she would come over, so I cooked dinner for the two of us. Those in disgruntled relationships, ponder this: being single means possibly eating Easter dinner ALONE. It’s a crapshoot.

I didn’t have any big meat item, but I did my usual vegetable roasting. I love roasting vegetables- not only because they taste so good, but mostly because I am lazy, and it’s the easiest thing ever. Here are my ingredients:

Right next to the garlic is a little stick of chorizo. They sell it at Blue Apron in Park Slope for $1.50!!! What a steal! It’s great cause it will hold in the fridge forever, and it’s something different from the same old bacon.

I am relatively new to the cauliflower phenomenon- Aya introduced me to it a few months ago. I’m pretty hooked though. For this, I just chopped up the cauliflower, the zucchini, the chorizo, a few cloves of garlic and peeled the red onions. Preheat oven to 400.

Disclaimer: it took me FOREVER to peel these little fuckers, which is not fun for lazy people. I will use shallots next time.
Put everything in a baking pan, drizzle olive oil all over it, add some salt, grind some pepper. I also added a few bay leaves, cause I had some. I love all the colors here:
Stir occasionally, and take out after about 30 minutes. That’s it!!!
Shave a ton of romano over it, then mix it around.
I obviously needed something else with the meal, so I just made some pasta. I sauteed an onion with a fresh sausage, and boiled fresh pasta that I randomly had in the fridge.

Put some tomato sauce with all of that, et voila! Also, fresh parsley is so necessary.
Here is our meal- Jesus Resurrection 2008. Sadly, the corner wine store was closed, so we couldn’t consume the blood of Christ. Fumiko said we drink the blood all the time, so it was no big deal- we just settled for beer. Would that be Jesus pee? OMG I’m totally going to hell.

PS- the chorizo adds a nice crunch to the soft vegetables. Fumi liked it. Give it a whirl.