Pasta alle Vongole
A classic Sicilian dish featuring pasta with clams.
Equipment
- Bowl
- colander
- Kitchen sponge
- cutting board
- knife
- Large pot for pasta
- Large pan with lid
- wooden spoon
- Small bowl for discarded shells
Ingredients
- 1 kg small clams in the shell manila, vongole, little neck
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 fresh Birdseye chilies or 1 tbsp dried chilis
- salt and pepper for seasoning
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1/2 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 500 g dried spaghetti
Instructions
Clean and Prep Clams
- Check the clams. They should be closed. For open clams, gently tap them on the counter or cutting board and see if they react by closing. If they don’t react after 3 minutes, throw them away. Any clams with chipped or cracked shells throw them away.
- Soak clams in cold water for one hour. This releases any sand or dirt inside the shell.
- Pick up each individual clam and give it a scrub with a kitchen sponge to get rid of outside grit and dirt.
- Rinse each clam and place in a colander to prepare to cook.
While the clams are soaking... Prep your ingredients.
- Boil water and season with salt for the pasta in a large pot.
- Peel and mince garlic.
- Mince chili.
- Pick parsley leaves off stems and roughly chop.
- Bundle parsley stems together.
- Pour a glass of wine.
Pasta alle Vongole
- Heat a large empty pan with a lid on high heat to warm up.
- Cook the pasta in the pot of boiling salted water and cook until al dente 8-10 minutes (depending on the package).
- After the spaghetti is cooking for about 4 minutes add olive oil into the heated pan.
- Quickly add garlic, parsley stalks, chili, salt, and pepper, and move with a wooden spoon so the garlic doesn’t burn for 1 minute.
- Carefully add the clams and wine (it may splatter). Shake the pan to disperse the seasoned oil and close the lid.
- Allow to cook for about 6 minutes, giving the closed pan a shake every minute on the heat.
- Pull the parsley bundle out.
- Drain the pasta and add the pasta directly into the clam pan.
- Fold in the pasta with the clams and liquid and toss together.
- Add a little extra olive oil and chopped parsley leaves.
- Serve immediately and enjoy. ***Any clams that did not open while cooking, throw them away. Do not eat them.