Vermicelli alle Vongole Fujite

• 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

1. In a large, shallow bowl, toss the tomatoes with the sea salt and permit the tomatoes to give up their juices while you proceed.
2. With a mezzaluna or a very sharp knife, mince the salt pork with the garlic to a fine paste.
3. In a small saute pan over a medium flame, warm the olive oil and saute the paste, taking care not to color it.
4. Add the chile and set the mixture aside.
5. Cook the pasta in abundant, boiling, sea-salted water to al dente, draining it, reserving 1/2 cup of its cooking water and placing it in the bowl with the sea-salted tomatoes.
6. Add the garlic/chile-scented fat and the still-hot, reserved cooking water, tossing the pasta over and over to coat each strand thoroughly.
7. Present the pasta in warmed, shallow bowls.
8. One might wish to substitute bottled clam juice for the reserved pasta cooking water, giving the humble condiment some stronger reminiscence of the sea, of the fugitive bivalves, thus diluting, though, the romance of the dish.

tomatoes, salt, salt pork, garlic, extravirgin olive oil, pepper, vermicelli, salt

Taken from www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/vermicelli-alle-vongole-fujite-391126 (may not work)