Name: Spaghetti alle Vongole
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 1 kg small clams, scrubbed and purged; 400 g spaghetti; 90 ml extra-virgin olive oil; 6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced; 1 dried peperoncino, crumbled; 150 ml dry white wine; 1 large bunch flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped; 1 tsp fine sea salt, for the pasta water; ½ tsp black pepper

Spaghetti alle Vongole

Clams opened in white wine and garlic, their liquor emulsified with olive oil and pasta water into a sauce that clings to every strand. Twenty minutes, and the sea does most of the work.

30 min total Serves 4 servings Medium

What Goes With It

A Vermentino or Greco di Tufo
Serve with bread to mop the bowl
Follow with a lemon granita

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Tuscan Panzanella, Creamy Parmesan Polenta, Cauliflower Risotto.

How to Make Spaghetti alle Vongole

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Purge the clams in heavily salted cold water for an hour, changing it twice. Discard any that stay open when tapped.
Warm half the olive oil with half the garlic in a lidded pan over medium heat for 2 minutes, then add the clams and the wine and cover.
Steam for 3 to 5 minutes, shaking the pan, until the shells open. Lift them out as they do and discard any that stay shut.
Strain the cooking liquor through muslin to remove grit and reserve it. There is always grit.
Pick the meat from two-thirds of the clams, leaving the rest in their shells for serving.
Cook the spaghetti until 2 minutes short of al dente, reserving 250 ml of water.
Meanwhile warm the remaining oil and garlic with the peperoncino in a wide pan until pale gold, then add the strained clam liquor and bring to a simmer.
Add the drained spaghetti and toss hard for 2 minutes, adding pasta water, until the sauce turns glossy and clings.
Fold through all the clams and the parsley, season with pepper, and serve at once.

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A Few Notes

Strain the liquor. One gritty mouthful ruins the plate.

No cheese with seafood pasta — a rule worth keeping here.

A splash of the pasta water at the very end is usually what turns a thin sauce creamy.

Changing the Recipe

An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
A dry vermouth keeps for longer than an open bottle of white wine and is the closer swap than a random white left in the fridge; for an alcohol-free version, use the same amount of stock with a squeeze of lemon.

Leftovers

Eat immediately. Cooked clams toughen on reheating and the emulsion breaks.