Spaghetti con vongole - Pasta with clams

This is an old family recipe from my Great-Grandmother. Yes, Great-Grandma knew how to cook.

Anyway, I know it's nothing new since you'll see this dish at most Italian restaurants but it's easy to make and extremely delicious. 

You can serve it with a nice glass of wine and some rustic french baguette.

Let's start out with the ingredients:

2lbs of clams, cleaned and rinsed
15oz of fire-roasted tomatoes
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 dry red chili peppers, finely chopped
1 cup of white wine
2 Tbsp of unsalted butter
3 Tbsp of creme fraiche or sour cream
1 cup of Italian parsley
juice of one lemon
Sea salt & pepper to taste
1lb of spaghetti
a few whole chives for garnish


The How-to:

Saute the garlic and chilies in a skillet over medium-high heat with a little bit of olive oil for about a minute. Then add the tomatoes and half of the parsley. Stir and let it simmer for 2 - 3 mins. Then add the clams and the white wine, cover the pan and let it simmer until all of the clams have opened.

Discard the ones that stay closed.

In the meantime, start cooking the spaghetti in generously salted water to al dente, 9-10 mins.

Once the clams have all opened, remove them with a ladle and add the butter, creme fraiche and half of the remaining parsley to the sauce. Let the sauce reduce and thicken uncovered, 10 mins. Now add the clams back in, reduce the heat to low and let everything come back up to temperature. You don't want to simmer the clams but slowly reheat them instead. Season with salt & pepper.

Drain the spaghetti and pour them into a large bowl. Pour the clams and sauce over the spaghetti, grate some fresh Pecorino Romano over them and garnish with the rest of the parsley and chives.

And here's a link to the corresponding video...no it's not my Granny you see in there:




Mangia Bene!