The Popes Dish

 

The Popes Dish

Mike's Italian Pizzeria

32 E Main St, Fonda, NY 12068

The Popes Dish from Mike’s Italian Pizzeria is arguable one of my favorite if not my favorite dish from any restaurant anywhere.

The fact that I like their food so much may have been colored a bit because of my families dining history with this restaurant.

My family had been going to Mike’s for dinner for over forty years! 

I believe this restaurant became a favorite because we had lived most of our lives in an Italian neighborhood that was a mix of Corsican and Sicilian families meaning we very use to the French influence in Italian cooking.

Mike and his wife Lucy are originally from Italy and still have a home on the coast of Italy just across the border from the South of France.

I think the fact that they come from this  area of Italy may be the reason that we loved their food and also may have been what made their restaurant a step above and different than the usual Pizzerias is available in that area.

In all the years I went to Mike’s for dinner with my family I always ordered a special dish that Mike made just for me.

He learned over the years I don’t like what I call wet bread. Translated I don’t like any bread that has liquid on it making it soggy. Once he learned that about me he started making me an eggplant casserole instead of putting the eggplant over bread and I ordered it that way for many many years.

As time went on and my family passed away I became friends with Mike and Lucy and often stopped at their restaurant with my friend Pat when the restaurant was about to close. Once the place was closed Mike and Lucy brought out the wine and lots to eat. We all ate drank and laughed for hours. It was and is one of my favorite memories of wonderful times spent with friends. 

As time when on my life changed and in 1999 two things happened that brought about my introduction to the Popes Dish.  

I had just bought my first investment house to renovate and resell. It was also the year that Mike and Lucy had gone to Italy for a few months and brought back a few recipes to try in their restaurant.

After spending four weeks renovating my investment house I decided to take a break for an evening before I staged and sold my house. I decided to splurge on an evening at a motel where I could relax and just enjoy myself. I decided to stay across the street from Mike's restaurant at a motel that I knew had great water pressure for a wonderful shower soft beds and big colored TV's. Pampering myself was on my addenda that evening as well as visiting with my old friends Mike and Lucy. They had been away for quite a while and it would be good to see them again and of course enjoy Mike's cooking. 

That night after I checked into the motel I called Mike’s to ask them to prepare me a dinner to take back to my motel room with me.  I was very tired and though after I got to see the couple again I would to go back to the motel to enjoy my dinner and just relax. 

When I went over to the restaurant to pick up my dinner that evening Lucy came out from the kitchen and handed me my salad and a soft drink then rang up the charge for these two things on the cash register.

I reminded Lucy I was also getting an entree.

She smiled and said I know. I was a little confused but paid for the salad and soft drink. I figured I would pay for the entree when it was ready. I thought to myself if that was the way they wanted it done it was OK with me.

 When Mike was finished making my dinner he came out of the kitchen and handed me a closed container of food.  I started to open it because I was curious about why they had been so mysterious and odd about a dinner I had ordered many times before. Mike stopped me from opening the container and told me that it was not my usual dinner that it was something new. He told me I had never had it at their restaurant before and in fact he had never made it before for any of their customers. He told me he was not going to charge me for dinner since I had not ordered what he had made for me.  He said I know you will like it and all I ask is that you give us your opinion about this meal. I said of course I will. Then with a warning not to open it until I got back to the motel Mike smiled went back to work.

When I got back to the motel I could not wait to see what was inside the mysterious container of food it would turn out to be first look followed by my first tasted of Mike’s Pope Dish.

I loved this meal so much I wished I had more! I let Mike and Lucy know how delicious this meal was.

Mike has served it on his menu ever since and I have ordered it many more times over the years I lived in that area.

The Pope’s dish is actually a twist on linguine with white clam sauce.

The additional ingredients include white wine tomato paste mushrooms and a touch of red pepper that combined makes this meal a step above the usual linguine with white clam sauce.

 Mike never gives away his recipe secrets so this is my version of the Popes dish after careful observation and trial and error to get this dish just right. 

It’s the same taste wise but I do a couple of things to kick it up a notch.

Here is the recipe:

Popes Dish

1 (3oz.) can minced clams
1/3 c. chopped onion
1 1/2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. flour or Wondra 

 1/2 c. dry white wine
¾ cup of Italian seasonings
Dash of ground red pepper
1 tbsp. tomato paste
2 pasta nests
1 mushroom

Dozen Clams in shells

Sauce:

Drain clams; reserve 1/2 cup liquid. Sauté onions and garlic in olive oil until onions are slightly colored then add the flour (Wondra). Add reserved clam liquid, wine Italian seasonings, and red pepper

Simmer for 5 minutes after adding the mushrooms and clams.

While you are waiting for the sauce to cook drop two nests into boiling water for two minutes.

Remove the nests from the water and drain well. Add clams to the boiling water and wait for the clams to open them removed them and drain.

Next set the nests in the middle of the plate and spoon the sauce over the nests.

Next in the center of the nests scoop a little of the mushrooms and minced clams. Then take one open clam in the shell and set on top.

Now surround the nest with the remaining clams and drizzle the sauce over the opened clams surrounding the nests.

This makes about three meals.

When dinner is done remove the clams from the shells and mix with the sauce.

Leave the clams whole.

Put away the two extra dinners in the freezer for future use.

If you like seafood as much as I do give this recipe a try. I love the flavor of the sauce so much I could eat it by the spoonful!

 I moved a few years ago out of the area and no longer go to Mike's Pizzeria.  I do miss the couple and the food but will always have great memories of the years this restaurant was part of my families dining life.

You are probably saying to yourself right now that this was a nice story but this is supposed to be about eating well on a strict budget.

Guess what? You are!

The ingredients would have stayed at two dollars a meal if I had not chose to use the pasta nests. I consider the pasta nest as a whim or craving. It only raised the entire meal to nineteen cents over my usual budget for myself. I can live with that. If you prefer buy linguine it tastes just the same as the past nests and is much less expensive.

What is important to you is your budget and this did stay on budget and provided a wonderful meal in the process.

Give it a try if you like seafood this is a meal that is memorable and I am sure will be will become one of your favorites!