(Yet) another dish I cannot bear to avoid when I see it on a menu. Spaghetti and clams in a white wine and garlic sauce - heaven! Inspired by the myriad of restaurants on Capri that serve it up with fresh pasta and clams brought in that day. Our little secret though: we make it with linguine, hence more surface area for supreme sauce soakage.
What we're aiming for: Enough for two with plenty of clams and pasta to go around. Feel free to go heavier on the clams or pasta as needed. As usual, served with some crusty baguette for scooping up the remaining juices
The Components:
Enough linguine (or if you must, spaghetti) pasta for each person eating
300g of clams (this was almost too much for two of us...but we powered through) - washed and clean. ***Remove any open clams*** (this means they're no longer alive, and you want them to be alive right up to cooking)
One small glass of white wine - about ⅓ cup (you know what to do with the rest of the bottle)
1 clove of garlic, chopped very thinly
1 shallot (optional)
1 bunch of parsley (roughly chopped) (make sure to keep a little bit for garnish)
3 x red chilies, chopped
Salt and pepper
Olive oil for cooking
The Algorithm:
- Start to cook your pasta in a nice salty water as usual - aiming to have it finish cooking near to the end of the steps below:
- Add a good few glugs of olive oil to a wide-based pan on medium heat - Once heated (but not too hot), add the garlic, chilies, shallot and most of the parsley and stir until the aroma of the garlic is hitting every corner of the room - Add the clams and let sit in the pan for a few minutes while they heat up - As they start to open, add the glass of white wine
- Once all the clams are open, let the wine reduce a little further so there’s not tooo much liquid sloshing around the bottom of the pan and the clams are soaking up the heady fumes
- Your pasta should be done now and drained. Add this directly into the pan on top of the clams, keeping the pan on a low-med heat - Add a bit of olive oil to loosen up the pasta, and a good pinch of sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper - Stir the entire mixture to get the pasta coated in the sauce and heated up again
- Turn off the heat and pop the entire concoction into a big serving bowl (ideally warmed) or keep in the pan and bring that right to the table - Sprinkle some leftover chopped parsley on top and let everyone dig right in!