(photo courtesy of http://labellacook.blogspot.com)Put your fresh clams in a large bowl or sinkful of cold, salted water and leave them for an hour to purge them of any sand or grit. Pull the clams out of the water, do not drain in a colander. Scrub clams free of any other dirt, barnacles etc.
Spaghetti con le vongole - in bianco
Put some salted water in a deep pan on to boil and in it cook some linguine or spaghetti until al dente.
In the meantime crush a couple of cloves of garlic with the flat blade of a knife and drop into some olive oil to fry until they turn golden brown. Remove from the oil and discard. Add the clams and cook for 2-3 minutes on a high flame until they have all opened. At this point, remove half of the clams from their shells and discard the shells. Save the rest of the clams, with their shells on, for decoration and put them aside. Put the shelled clams in the garlicky oil. Chop some fresh parsley and add it to the clams along with a pinch of salt and some crushed chilli pepper (depending on your tastes). Add your drained linguine to the pan with the clams and stir it around to coat the spaghetti in the flavoursome oil, parsley and clams. Serve on a plate and top with the clams you set aside that still have their shells on.
Eat accompanied by a crisp, chilled, white Falanghina wine.
in rosso...
A variant of this is with tomatoes. I personally like to simply chop some juicy small cherry tomatoes, pachino for example, and cook them in the olive oil before adding the clams, smashing them once soft with a spoon.
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2 comments:
i love this dish because it is so simple. Ettore's mom doesn't remove the shells, becuse I think they might add some flavor but she rinces them for hours before.
i like having ALL the shells on too, although some people put ten million clams in the sauce, which means you can't get at the spaghetti for the shells... which is why i always suggest to remove SOME of the clams from their shells... but i agree with you. if nothing else, it looks good!
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