Mini Rice Cakes in Roasted Red Pepper, Caper and Garlic Sauce
Adapted from Ode2Food’s Gnocchi in Roasted Red Pepper, Caper and Roasted Garlic Sauce
So after last week’s adventure in can opening, I went to the store, bought canned tomatoes and returned home… all while my can opener was still at Eric’s. Realizing that whole tomatoes weren’t going to squeeze out of the half-assed opened can like the tomato paste like last time, I decided to be extroverted and meet a neighbor. This one’s for you, Yanni.
I left work with the recipe from Ode2Food in mind, since I knew I had some 조랭이떡 (ha ha, I can’t read Korean either. It’s basically mini rice cakes) in my fridge. I’m in love with rice cakes and as I’ve said before, they’re essentially Korean/rice flour gnocchi. This is what they look like:
Any kind of rice cake (or gnocchi) would work, this is just the shape that interested me last time I was at the Joong Boo Market (side note: What a discovery! Only 5 stops north on the blue line! Sooo much closer than H-Mart, which is in Skokie.)
Also, thanks to Lila’s influence, my cooking is more about approximate measures than it has even been before, so my recipe is going to read a little more like those you would find on Nibbledish. So here goes:
Mini Rice Cakes in Roasted Red Pepper, Caper and Garlic Sauce
Serves two (aka, I have leftovers in my fridge)
A medium frying pan’s worth of mini rice cakes
1/2 package cubed, super firm tofu
1 can whole tomatoes (peeled)
2 garlic cloves
1 red pepper, roasted
2ish tbsp large capers
Tsp-ish? Dried oregano
Tsp-ish? Dried basil
Salt
Pepper
Tsp-ish? Garlic powder
1/4-1/2 onion, sliced
Olive oil
Dash of red wine
1.) Roast red pepper and let it cool (I roasted mine over my gas stove and used a plastic bag to make it easier to peel.)
2.) Hand mash the tomatoes, capers, oregano, basil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and wine in a bowl with a whisk. Put to the side.
3.) Brown garlic and onion with a dash of olive oil until the onion becomes clear. Immediately add to the tomato sauce mix.
4.) In same pan, add a little more olive oil and brown tofu cubes until appropriately fried (I like mine extra crispy). Then add the rice cakes and sauté until done.
5.) Add the tomato sauce mixture and simmer for a 5-7ish minutes, or until the sauce has boiled down a bit. Then add the roasted red pepper. Let simmer for a few minutes more (depending on how roasted the red pepper is) and then serve!
I will definitely be making this again— it’s a good sauce that would be good on a lot of pastas. I love the way the texture of rice cakes goes with the chunky, hand mashed tomato sauce. So yeah, score one: me.
