Linguini with Clams in tomato sauce (Linguini alle vongole con pomodoro) Recipe

This is the first recipe of the many more to come and is dedicated to my aunt Giuseppina who taught me the secret of Napolitan cuisine… Cooking with Passion! (Italians do everything with passion! *Wink*). This dish is a traditional Napoletan dish that is very popular here in the province of Naples and especially in the Campania region. There are two different ways to prepare this dish… with tomatoes (con pomodoro)  or without (bianco).

In this recipe, I am preparing the linguini alle vongole con pomodoro.. (the sounds of it makes my mouth water even as I write this blog!!)  You can also substitute linguini with spaghetti. It goes well with both. =D

What you will need:

 For the clam sauce:

500g of Vongole (Clams)

¼ cup of white wine

3-4 pieces of pomodoro pelati (Just used the pieces of tomatoes in the can.. do not put the tomato paste – I use canned tomatoes instead of fresh ones. You can also use fresh ones, if you can find them at the supermarket. Make sure its ripe pelati or cherry tomatoes. When using cherry tomatoes, increase it to 6/7 pieces). We want the sauce to have a hint of tomato and not too overpowering to keep the original flavour of the vongole.

2-3 cloves of  Garlic, sliced

2-3 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)

1 Chilli

Few leaves of Parsley (Prezzemolo)

  

For the Linguini:

250grams of Linguini 18 (18 here depicts the thickness of the linguini, you can also use other sizes-of course each size differs in the time it takes to cook)

Salt to taste

Cooking method:

For the Linguini:

    In a large pan, boil 8 cups of water. Once the water starts to boil, put in the linguini and the salt. Put enough salt to taste and wait for the linguini to cook. Make sure to cook the linguini ‘Al-dente’ (‘Al-dente’ means cooking something and retaining its firmness but not hard or too soft. In the Italian language, the word ‘Al-dente’ means 'to the tooth’ literally means when chewing, it sticks to the teeth)

For the sauce:

    Heat a medium saucepan in medium-high flame. Pour the EVOO into a fairly saucepan and wait for it to become hot. Put in the slices of garlic and chilli into the pan. Wait for the aroma of the garlic to be infused with the chilli and oil.  Once infused, put in the live vongole into the saucepan and cover it. DO NOT PUT SALT. The vongole is already saltish as it was sitting in salt water. If you put in salt, it will become too saltish.

    Cover the saucepan, set cooking flame to medium-low and wait until the clams open, once open, pour in the white wine and tomatoes. Stir for about 10-15 minutes. Pour in the cooked ‘Al-dente’ linguini into a straining colander and then place the cooked linguini into the saucepan with the vongole sauce. 

     Mix well and serve hot with chopped parsley . This dish goes very well with white wine. 

Yum yum… Linguini con Vongole anyone? :P