Spaghetti con le Vongole
If a promise of
eating ice cream to a child works its wonders, this pasta dish does to
mine. For a child of five, it is a tad strange to latch on to this
dish as a topnotch favorite. In fact, I recently cooked this as a
desperate move to suppress an erupting tantrum.
Spaghetti con le
vongole is a Neapolitan pasta dish by origin but widely diffused all
over Italy as it is a classic seafood pasta favorite. If you are in a
seafood restaurant, you will most likely find this in the menu. There
are two variants, one with fresh tomatoes and the other without. There
are also some with zucchini. At home, I always cook the white one. If you want your pasta with tomatoes, just add a few pieces of halved
cherry tomatoes. The cooking procedure is exactly the same.
There are two kinds of vongole that are sold in Italy. The vongole veraci (Ruditapes decussatus) or carpet shell clams and vongole filippine (Tapes philippinarum) or Philippine clams, introduced in the waters of Venice in the 80's but the vongole veraci are more widely used because they are tastier and more tender.
Because
there is a limited number of ingredients in this dish, every
ingredient is essential in contributing its unique taste. Being
married to a person who despises garlic, I have learned to tone down my
garlic usage in cooking. This specific dish though is exempted from
my usual limited garlic rule. After some trials & errors, I have
learned that the garlic is actually fundamental in boosting the taste
of the vongole. So I finally had the garlic binge I thought I would
never have again. I quadrupled my habitual singular garlic and I
finally got the perfect taste I was looking for.
Spaghetti con le Vongole
Ingredients:
Serves 4
- 350 - 400 grams spaghetti
- 500 - 800 grams vongole veraci (ruditapes decussatus) or carpet shell clams, purged
- 1 cup or 250 ml. white wine
- bunch of fresh parsley, minced
- 2 - 4 garlic cloves, halved
- 1 chili, seeded and chopped
- Bring a pot of water to a boil. When it boils, add some salt then the spaghetti. Follow the number of minutes suggested in the box. The sauce should cook before the spaghetti.
- While waiting for the water of the pasta to boil, prepare the sauce.
- Over medium heat, in a saucepan, sautè the garlic & chili.
- Add the clams. Cook until they all open. Discard the ones that didn't open if there are any.
- Pour the wine then put up the heat to medium - high for about 2 minutes.
- Lower the heat then simmer until the sauce is reduced and has become denser.
- Don't add salt because the clams are already salty.
- Mix the cooked pasta over low heat.
- Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil & sprinkle the parsley.
