Italy has such delicious clams that spaghetti with clams is always one of my top choices when we eat out. It's also something I make at home frequently. It's easy to prepare and I have a few magic ingredients that make this dish extraordinary. Everyone you serve it to will ask what you do to make your spaghetti alle vongole so amazing!
It goes without saying that you need to use only the very best and freshest ingredients but there are two things that I add to this dish that transform it into perfection: a few anchovy fillets and a little bit of cognac. They’re the kind of ingredients that you don’t actually taste when the dish is done but you‘ll notice that people say all the time “I’ve never had spaghetti with clams as good as this!”
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
- 1 kilogram Clams (35 ounces)
- 800 grams Spaghetti (28 ounces)
- 120 milliliters Olive oil (½ cup)
- 1 tablespoon red chili pepper minced
- 1 clove garlic chopped
- 2 medium tomatoes quartered
- 2 anchovy fillets
- 60 milliliters Cognac (¼ cup)
- 2 tablespoons Parsley minced
Instructions
- Clean the clams by placing several hours in cold, salted water.
- Start with super fresh clams, preferably local. Fill a sink with cold, heavily salted water, which mimics the clams' natural habitat sea environment. To keep the water really cold add ice cubes. Add the clams and let them clean themselves for an hour. The clams will eliminate any sand or dirt inside their shells.
- In the meantime prepare the base for your sauce, using a saucepan large enough to hold the clams.
- Sauté the pepper and garlic in the olive oil until sizzling.
- Add the tomatoes and cook covered on high for two minutes until they're nice and soft.
- Add the anchovy fillets and cognac and cook until the fillets begin to disintegrate, about two minutes.
- Use a potato masher to mash and amalgamate the sauce ingredients.
- Cook the clams covered on high just until all the shells have opened up. I usually turn them once so that every shell has enough space to open up. This will take just a few minutes.
- Remove the clams with a slotted spoon and keep covered.
- Strain the rest of the sauce through a fine mesh strainer to remove any additional sand and grit.
- In the meantime, cook the spaghetti in salted boiling water until al dente, or according to package instructions.
- Cook the spaghetti in boiling, salted water until al dente, or according to package instructions.
- Drain and then toss into the pasta sauce.
- Transfer to a serving bowl.
- Add the clams, sprinkle with parsley and serve.
Notes
Special Equipment You'll need a fine mesh strainer to remove any additional sand and grit once the sauce is cooked.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
I love the idea of adding anchovies! They make everything better, I wonder why I never added them into my version of pasta alle vongole! Well, I will from now on!
Cognac, that could also be a very interesting add on. I am happy to try your version as soon as I can get hold on to some!
My version is a bit more classic, the only surprising ingredient that I add is some freshly grated Parmesan at the very end. I know that adding cheese to a seafood pasta, might seem quite wrong, especially for Italians, but I had to surrender and admit that this recipe tastes better with it. I read about the Parmesan on pasta alle vongole in Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, (a great book) and even if I was really 'scettica', I tried and it worked well for me.
I have very few recipes on my website yet, included pasta alle vongole, since it is one of my fav recipes ever!
Thanks Marina! Yes, I also have that book and love it. Actually there are many ingredients you can sneak into recipes that add a flavor burst but don’t appear as the hero ingredient. Just like the anchovies and cognac in this recipe, a delicate addition of Parmesan sounds like a great idea.
Thanks for your comment!
Joe says it looks amazing and want to have some! BTW Wendy...he had a clam/mussel spaghetti with a smoked tomato saffron sauce @ Ditrambo that was amazing...we are still talking about it! The combination was fabulous and that sauce with the saffon...killer!
That sounds like a delicious must-try Phyllis!
Smoked tomato saffron sauce? Delish!!!
Absolutely delicious. ONE of my all time favourites ??
Yes, it's one of the best! The addition of the anchovies and cognac truly adds a magic touch to this recipe!