Recipe: Spaghetti alle Vongole

Serves 4

Spaghetti alle Vongole

Classic, delicious, timeless… you just shouldn’t mess with some dishes and this is one of them. It’s so simple to cook, but it still manages to extract the absolute essence of sweet-salty clams, concentrating their flavour in each strand of the al dente pasta. So good. Eat this, close your eyes, and suddenly you’re in Italy. Who doesn’t want that?

INGREDIENTS

1 kg (2 lb 12 oz) clams
350g (12 oz) spaghetti
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra, for drizzling
3 garlic cloves, finely sliced
large pinch dried chilli flakes, to taste
100ml (3 1/2 fl oz) dry white wine
handful flat-leaf (Italian) parsley, finely chopped
lemon wedges, to serve

METHOD

If you need to purge your clams (most farmed ones don’t require this), soak them in a bowl of heavily salted water for 30 minutes; this helps filter out any sand and grit. Repeat the process if your clams are very sandy. Next soak the clams in clean water for 10-15 minutes to rinse off any excess salt, then drain them well.

Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil for the spaghetti. Cook the spaghetti for 2-3 minutes less than the recommended cooking time (see the package instructions for this); you want your pasta to be quite al dente.

When the pasta is about 5 minutes from being cooked, place a large, deep frying pan on the heat. Bring up to medium temperature and add the oil. Add the garlic and chilli flakes and stir for 2 minutes or until the garlic has softened but not coloured. Add the clams and white wine, increase the heat to high, then cover the pan and cook, shaking the pan often for 2-3 minutes or until the clam shells pop open.

By about now your pasta should be ready. Transfer it to the large frying pan, reserving about 1 cup of the cooking water. Toss the spaghetti through the clams, adding enough reserved pasta water to form a light sauce that coats the pasta. Remove the pan from the heat and stand, covered, for 2 minutes for the pasta to absorb all the flavours. Season to taste with salt and pepper, toss through the parsley and chilli flakes, then serve with lemon wedges.