Recipe: Spaghetti Vongole—an Italian classic, simple and elegant
This is a recipe that is distinguished for its elegance and simplicity, a classic spring and summer dish from Italy. True to Italian food culture, its all about celebrating fresh ingredients, not trying to mask them or manipulate them. This brilliant dish is extremely simple to make but it does require about 15 minutes of focus (all the time it takes to cook it) but everything comes together very fast. The clams need to be bought on the morning of cooking or at the earliest the day before and kept on ice so that they are alive when you cook them, a dead clam could make you very ill. I recommend serving this with a confident, but fresh white wine, served well chilled. Try a Vernaccia di San Gimignano from Tuscany or even a Chenin Blanc from the Loire.
Ingredients (serves 4):
1kg vongole (clams) 250g spaghetti 2 large, mild red chillies, deseeded and sliced thinly 2 cloves garlic, crushed 1 bunch parsley 2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 lemon 100ml dry white wine
Method:
1. Drop the spaghetti into a large amount of well-salted, boiling water. As soon as possible with out breaking the strands, bend the pasta so that it becomes full immersed. Cook as instructed on the packet, usually 9 mins does it perfectly.
2. Wash the console in a large amount of cold water in the sink. Discard any that remain open when handled or which had broken shells, as these are already dead.
3. In a large saucepan with a well fitting lid, heat the olive oil and add the garlic and the chilli. Once this has cooked enough to take the raw edge off the garlic, turn the heat up as high as it will go and add the wine. Bring to the boil and then add the vongole and put the lid on. This now needs to cook for no more than 4 mins, shaking halfway through.
4. This should give you enough time to chop the parsley.
5. Now drain the pasta and combine it with the vongole, sprinkle over the parsley and a squeeze of lemon. Give everything a really good stir and serve piping hot. Each plate should get a little of the juices in the bottom of the pan as well.
Tips: it is not necessary to buy or make fresh pasta, dried pasta is an excellent ingredient—but you should buy a good Italian brand if possible, like De Cecco.
This recipe is simplicity at its finest, but you can also add thinly sliced red pepper and fennel, which adds a nice flavour and bulks out the dish.