Linguine alle vongole

If you’ve ever been by the seaside in Italy, you may have noticed that clams pasta, or ‘vongole’ in Italian is never missing on the menu, not only in the summer but pretty much in any season.

I have so many memories of eating it during the long weekends spent in Liguria and I just love to replicate it at home to remind myself that some happy memories can be recreated simply through food.

There are many variations and everyone has their own recipe, but my favorite version includes a combination of fresh chillies / breadcrumbs / garlic / parsley. Sometimes i also like to add some fresh cherry tomatoes right at the end, so they barely warm up.

In this specific version I added a diced zucchini, which gives the dish some texture (I barely cook it so it stays nice and firm) as well as some sweetness.

Contrary to what people believe, it’s very easy to make so it makes the perfect treat if you’re feeling like seafood!

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Ingredients

Serves: 4 portions

Prepping time: 5 min + salt bath 1-3 hours

Cooking time: 25 min

• 320g linguine

• 1kg vongole

• 1 clove of garlic

• A bunch of parsley

• One fresh chilly, chopped

• 100g breadcrumbs

• A handful of coarse salt to clean the vongole

• Olive oil and salt

Preparation

• Prepare your clams: discard all the broken or empty shells.

• Rinse them and place them in a bowl, then fill it up with water and the coarse salt and let it rest for up to 3 hours. This will allow the vongole to release any residual sand.

• Heat some oil in a pan and add the garlic, chilly and the parsley stems.

• While they warm up, drain the clams well, rinse them again and plunge them in the hot pan.

• Cover with the lid and let them cook for a few minutes on high heat. Turn off the heat as soon as they’re all open.

• Collect their juice and set the clams aside, discard the garlic and parsley.

• In the meanwhile, cook the pasta in abundant boiling saltwater until very al dente, save the cooking water.

• Cut the zucchini into small cubes and add them to a pan on medium heat.

• Pour the vongole cooking liquid in the pan, and add the spaghetti and a bit of the pasta cooking water.

• Toast your breadcrumbs by placing them in another pan on medium heat with some olive oil and salt. Make sure to keep on mixing it so they evenly cook.

• Finish cooking your pasta in the pan by gradually adding cooking pasta water, and add your vongole at the end with the parsley.

• Sprinkle with the breadcrumbs and serve!