Pasta with Clams
Pasta Vongole
This is a really easy dish to make and eat during the hot summer months. The clams release their briny goodness in a few minutes, and when stirred through with flash fried cherry tomatoes the sauce is finished and you only need to wait for the pasta to finish boiling. It really is a taste sensation in moments.
Ingredients
1kg of clams or vongole (I usually buy them prepacked from South Australia or New Zealand from fish markets)
1 punnet of cherry tomatoes
6 cloves of garlic
2 birds eye chilli (or 1 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes)
1 cup of fresh parsley, chopped
1 cup of white wine
500 grams of spaghetti or linguini
Olive oil
Method
Boil the pasta according to packet instructions
In the meantime, in a large sauce pan or Dutch oven, fry 3 of the garlic cloves and chopped chilli in some olive oil until fragrant, then add the clams and white wine and close the lid for about 5 minutes shaking the pot every so often. The clams are ready when they have all opened. (discard any that won’t open)
Grate the remaining 3 garlic cloves
In another fry pan, quickly fry the tomatoes in olive oil with the grated garlic on high heat for one minute
When the pasta is cooked al dente, save 1 cup of the water and mix the drained pasta with the clams and its juices, the tomatoes and the saved water. Sprinkle over the chopped parsley.
Presto!