Cookery Course and tips: #Spaghetti with Clams (white or red sauce), a classic dish from Italian Cuisine

All Italians like Spaghetti with Clams (Spaghetti alle Vongole). Here in Tuscany, when I can take advantage of a beautiful sunny day, I feel the need to go to the beach, take a nice walk and have lunch at one of my favorite restaurants in Marina di Pisa or in Viareggio. I always look for a place right on the sea, with the lapping of the waves and the smell of saltiness foretelling the arrival of Summer.

I mostly order spaghetti with clams, one of my favorite pasta dishes.

I was only a child when Miretta, a friend of my grandmother gave us her famous “sauce with clams” ; it was inside some glass jars, under vacuum. She made so much sauce at one go and then kept as a spare until it was over.

Whenever I noticed those jars on the kitchen pantry, my eyes began to shine for joy, as if I had been in front to the most precious treasure.

And in fact for me it was it! And I could not wait to sit at the table to taste a good dish of pasta seasoned with that delicious sauce … it is thanks to these memories too that I love this dish, so much.

Since our activity consists in cooking courses for foreigners I often surf around the web to look curiously how preparing Italian recipes abroad; I saw that some people add the butter to the sauce, others use even 7 cloves of garlic every 4 persons (OMG), other rinse the clams when cooked.

I strongly advise against it.

However, if you want to be sure about the creaminess of the sauce, you can dissolve a teaspoon every 4 persons of potato starch (or flour) in a bit of liquid from the clams and add it to the rest of the liquid previously filtered.

My tips for spaghetti with clams:

1. purge the clams in salted water
2. Check that there is no sand even after cooking
3. filter the liquid
4. throw away the clams remained shut after cooking (means they are dead)
5. never cook the clams for too long, because they tend to become gummy or worse, to dry
6. salt should not be added almost never because the clams are already tasty. If you add, do it just before placing the pasta in the pan
7. the most suitable pasta shapes are: spaghetti big (no spaghettini!), vermicelli and linguine

SPAGHETTI WITH CLAMS

Recipe by Erika Elia (CuocheinVacanza.it)

Prep time: at least 1 hour to spurge them + 20 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes + pasta cooking time
Total time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

12 ozSpaghetti or Vermicelli*
2,2 lbsclams
8cherry tomatoes (or 4 oz tomato sauce): optional
2 clovesfinely chopped garlic
1 glasswhite wine
1/2 cupfresh chopped parsley
to tastesalt
1 pinchred chilly pepper flakes
to tastepepper
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (just to cover the pan bottom)

Cooking Directions

Wash clams under water to remove grit and mud.
Drown clams in fresh salted water (in a bowl) for at least 1 hour, to get the sand and the grit out of clams. You can leave them in water as long as there is oxygen in your water. Overnight in the fridge is what you can do if you have time. Never leave your clams too long in salted water, because they suffocate and die.
Heat the oil in a large saute pan on medium heat
add the minced garlic, the red chilly pepper flakes, a handful of minced parsley (and chopped cherry tomatoes if you like a red sauce)
wait just 10 seconds and add the clams
add the white wine
stir well hearing the sound of the shells mixing with the wine
cover and simmer until clams have opened (for 5 to 8 minutes)
filter the clams with their liquid into a a fine strainer and put again the liquid in the saute pan
heat the liquid on medium heat for about 5 minutes (should not be too watery)
meanwhile take half of the clams and remove these ones from the shells and put them in the saute pan with their liquid
add the other half of clams with their shells
stir well
turn off the heat
bring a large pot of salted water to boil (cooking pasta directions here)
add spaghetti stirring constantly in the beginning
set the timer 1 or 2 minutes less than recommended time (it depends from the pasta brand)
drain spaghetti in a colander few seconds and
immediately place the pasta into the saute pan and mix thoroughly high heat 1 minute
sprinkle with fresh parsley
serve immediately