For ➍450 g spaghetti (or linguine)
1 kg fresh vongole (carpet shells)*
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 tbs olive oil
½ dried red pepper, crushed (or ½ ts cayenne)
salt & pepper
bunch of parsley
2 peeled & seeded (canned) plum tomatoes**
(white wine or white vermouth)
Scrub the fresh clams well. Let them sit in salted water for several hours, so they can purge themselves of sand. Boil them in just a little bit of water***, or steam them. When they open, drain them and stir them, with shells, into the sauce.
Start cooking the spaghetti in a separate pot.
Make the sauce by gently sautéing the chopped garlic and the chilli pepper in the oil in a large pot, adding the parsley when the mixture starts to brown. Don't let it burn. (Add the tomatoes)**.
Add 2 tbs of the clams' cooking (or canned) juice to the mixture. Add clams to the mixture and cook for 1 m.
Drain the spaghetti, and stir it into the sauce.
Serve with a glass of slightly chilled white wine.
*Use defrosted frozen clams instead, or 200 g bottled or canned clam meat. You can also use mussels.
**Optional: add tomatoes to have a richer sauce (but it will hide the clams' taste) (and it will be no longer a white sauce).
***Use a small glass of white wine or white vermouth instead.
****Use half the quantities for a starter.
A quicker recipe for spaghetti con vongele, with cooked vongele. Try the similar Spanish version.
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