And hello everyone! I’m taking you on a trip to Italy with a dish I’m particularly fond of, linguine alle vongole or spaghetti with clams. Renowned from north to southern Italy, from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic coast, and a staple of Venetian cuisine rich in seafood, “pastas alle vongole” are actually Neapolitan in origin. Once considered “popular”, today these recipes are more expensive and “refined” due to the fish and shellfish.
When I taste them, I often think of our vacations in Italy. I love this easy-to-prepare dish, which is why I’m sharing my recipe with you. A recipe that can have its variations depending on the restaurant and your tastes, but which is prepared in a variety of ways, depending on the villages, neighborhoods and families in Italy. In fact, I’ve already eaten them with cherry tomatoes, for example: they’re called linguine alle vongole. « rouges » (a bit like white or red pizza dough).
For the translation “vongole” in Italian covers several species of shellfish, although Italians prefer to use clams as an ingredient in this delicious dish.
A word of advice : The day before, soak your clams in cold water with coarse salt. This will allow them to be de-sanded. Store in a cool place and rinse with water before cooking.
Click here to discover our recipe in a short 15-second video.
✖️ Preparation time | 30 minutes
✖️ Cooking time | 10 minutes (pasta) and 15 minutes (clams)
✖️ Quantities: 2 persons
USTENSILS
1 large stewpot and 1 saucepan
INGREDIENTS
Serves 4 (or 2 if you’re really hungry and can’t stop)
- Prawns, clams or cockles (Approx. 200 grams per person) ( A word of advice : The day before, soak your cockles in cold water with coarse salt. This will allow them to be de-sanded. Change the water several times, then store in a cool place and rinse with water before cooking.)
- 1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley
- 3 shallots
- 2 garlic cloves
- 100 g to 120 g linguine or spaghetti per person BarillaN°7 because they are thicker
- 10 cl olive oil
- cherry tomatoes (optional)
- 1 knob butter (optional)
- Parmesan cheese (optional)
- 1 glass dry white wine (optional)
PREPARATION
Click here to discover our recipe in a short 15-second video.
⚠️ Preparing the linguine for this recipe:
- They should not be reheated, but prepared last, once the seafood sauce is ready.
- they must not be drained in a colander, but “fished” out of your pan with the serrated spoon, left to drain for a second above the water, then added to the stewpot containing the shellfish preparation.
- Mince shallots and peel garlic cloves
- In a frying pan, pour a little oil and brown the shallots and garlic.
- Add a little parsley to taste (I love it, I use a lot).
- Sauté over low heat for about 10 minutes, until golden brown.
- Add your clams (with the glass of wine if you like) and cook over high heat until the clams open. Cover and set aside.
- At the same time, in your saucepan, cook the linguine in boiling salted water (stop cooking 2 minutes before the final “al dente” stage), drain on top of your saucepan (save a bowl of cooking water before discarding everything).
- Add your linguine to the stewpot, top with the clams and stir again over high heat for a good 5 minutes. Pour in 2 ladles of pasta cooking stock and stir.
- Chop parsley leaves again and stir.
- At the end of cooking, add a good knob of butter (not obligatory but my husband is from Brittany, it gives even more flavour) and sprinkle with parsley.
- Sprinkle your plate with parsley and serve immediately.
Serve by the plate, presenting the vongoles nicely on top of the spaghetti with a few parsley leaves. Add a little Parmesan for a gourmet touch 😋 ( The Italians will tell you especially no parmesan with pasta with fish, shellfish or crustaceans but then again I love it so I use it discreetly! Shh, please don’t tell them)
⚠️ Be careful not to salt your dish while cooking, as the clams will already be salty, just like your butter 😉
Before you leave, don’t forget to take a look at all our other French and foreign recipes.
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