- Prep
- 40 minutes
- Cook
- 15 minutes
- Serves
- 2 people
- Difficulty
- Easy
Clams, a pan with a lid, and a few minutes of heat. The shells open, the clams give up their juice, and that juice, shaken together with olive oil and a little pasta water, becomes the sauce. Nothing gets added that the sea did not already bring.
This is the version from the kitchen at Restaurant Iluka, with a handful of cherry tomatoes for colour and a little sweetness. It is quick, but it rewards attention: clams wait for nobody, and neither does the pasta.
Method
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Soak the clams
Put the clams in a bowl of cold water salted like the sea and leave them for 30 minutes so they spit out their sand. This is most of the prep time, and you can do other things while it happens. Lift them out rather than pouring them into a colander, so the sand stays in the bowl. Throw away any that are cracked, or open and refuse to close when you tap them.
-
Start the pasta
Bring a large pot of water to the boil and salt it, but more lightly than usual: the clams bring plenty of salt of their own. Cook the spaghetti until 2 minutes short of al dente. Keep a mug of pasta water before you drain it.
-
Warm the garlic
Meanwhile, pour the olive oil into a wide pan that has a lid and set it over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and peperoncino and let them sizzle gently until the garlic is pale gold, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and give them a minute.
-
Open the clams
Turn the heat up, add the clams and the wine, and put the lid on. Shake the pan now and then. After 3 to 4 minutes the shells will be open. Lift the clams out into a dish and leave the juice in the pan. Any clams that stayed closed go in the bin.
-
Finish the pasta in the juice
Add the drained spaghetti to the pan and toss it over high heat in the clam juice for 1 to 2 minutes, adding a splash of pasta water if it looks dry. The starch, the oil and the juice come together into a sauce that clings to every strand. Stir in the parsley.
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Plate it
Twist the spaghetti into warm bowls, spoon the clams back over the top with whatever juice is left in the pan, and finish with a thin line of raw olive oil. Serve straight away, with an empty bowl on the table for the shells.
Cook's notes
- Taste the sauce before you add any salt. Between the clams and the pasta water, it often needs none.
- Lifting the clams out while the pasta finishes keeps them tender. Left in the pan, they turn rubbery.
- No cheese. Italians keep Parmesan away from clams, and this dish does not miss it.
- If you have no wine, a splash of pasta water does the same job of steaming the clams open.
A note on the oil
The oil works twice in this dish. At the start it carries the garlic and chilli into the clam juice and, with the pasta water, turns that juice into a sauce. At the end, poured raw over the bowl, it brings back what the heat took away. Ours is fresh green olive with a soft herbal smell and a mild pepper at the finish: enough to notice next to the clams, never enough to cover them.
