Spaghetti alle vongole in bianco
If I were a condemned man, I’d request a large helping of Spaghetti alle vongole in bianco for my last meal. Vongole are clams, and in bianco means that it’s the white wine sauce version rather than the tomato-based version. The tomato one is perfectly nice; I just prefer the white wine version.
There are two basic approaches to this dish, one for fresh clams and one for bottled ones. If you’re lucky enough to have easy access to fresh clams, don’t hesitate to use them, but don’t deny yourself this dish if they’re not available. I rarely have the luxury of fresh clams, but luckily my local Turkish shop stocks large jars of vongole in brine, and they work very well. Here’s my recipe.
First, put a large pan of water on to boil. Don’t salt it yet (it will boil quicker this way).
While the water is heating up, get your largest frying pan (or a wok) on another ring and heat some extra virgin olive oil in it over a medium heat.
Take half a head of garlic and skin and roughly chop the cloves. Put them in the oil. The garlic should gently fry, but absolutely do not allow it to brown. I like a bit of spice in this dish, so chop a fresh red chilli (the red flecks really add to the visual appeal in the finished dish) and add it to the garlic. The type of chilli and whether you leave the seeds in are up to you. You don’t want the spice to overpower the flavour of the clams, but you want there to be a noticeable bite. If you don’t have fresh chilli, classic dried peperoncini will do just fine.
Once the garlic has fried for a few minutes (again, taking care that it doesn’t begin to brown), open a bottle of dry white wine and pour a healthy glug of it into the frying garlic. Turn the heat up a little now, so that the wine begins to bubble gently; you want it to reduce a little bit, but not so much that it is sticky or boils away.
I tend to pour most of the brine from the bottled clams in at this stage too. It really enhances the breath of the sea flavour that you’re looking for. If you do this, the bubbling sauce smells like a garlicky rock pool at this stage. Good enough to eat already, in other words.
Put the clams into a sieve, and give them a rinse under a cold water to wash away any grit or bits of shell that may have made it through the bottling process. Hold them back for now.
As soon as the pasta water starts boiling, give it a generous dose of salt (nothing worse than under-salted pasta) and put a generous helping of spaghetti in (at least 100g of pasta each, or as the Italians would say “un etto“; I tend towards 150g, “un etto e mezzo“). I tend to give the pasta a couple of good stirs during cooking just to make sure that it does’t stick. Make sure you cook it without a lid. Set the timer for at least one minute less than the recommended cooking time. The pasta will keep cooking once you drain it, and you absolutely don’t want it to overcook.
By now, the sauce should be bubbling away nicely. It should have reduce a bit, but should still be fairly liquid. If it looks like it’s drying out, add a few splashes of water to get it going again.
Roughly chop handful flat-leaf parsley, and add about half of that to the sauce. When there’s about one minute to go on the pasta, put the clams in the sauce and give it a thorough stir. Remember that the clams have already been cooked, so all you’re looking to do is to re-heat them. Overcook them and they become very rubbery and unpleasant; simply warm them through and they’re juicy and delicious. Now squeeze half a lemon into the sauce, taste it and correct your seasoning. You’ll almost certainly want to add salt even though the clams are fairly salty themselves.
Drain the pasta as soon as the timer goes off. As soon as it’s drained, plonk it into the sauce (this is why you need a big saucepan) and mix it thoroughly with some tongs. Get it off the heat as soon as you can once it’s mixed. Serve on plates or bowls.
Now for the controversial bit. Do yourself a favour and grate some fresh parmesan over the dish. Italians will think that this is bonkers, and many restaurants will actually refuse to bring you the cheese when asked, because they’ve been brought up to think that cheese and fish must never be combined, but they’re wrong. Lobster Thermidor is a classic example of a great dish that combines seafood and cheese, and there are many others. Parmesan works well on Spaghetti alle vongole because it’s rich in umami, and so are the clams. It takes the dish to the next level, trust me.
Finally, sprinkle the remaining parsley over the plates and grind over some black pepper. Serve with the remainder of the wine you used for the sauce and some rustic bread to mop up the sauce.
Enjoy!
