A deep dive in the Mediterranean sea
ingredients for 4 servings (cost about 7€ pp)
- salt
- 500 gr cockles (bivalve)
- 500 gr clams
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 spring onion
- 80 ml white wine
- 1/2 chilli pepper
- 20 small cherry tomatoes
- 320 g spaghetti
- EV (light taste) olive oil
- fresh parsley
- 3l sea water (optional)
This is on of the most famous pasta dishes all over the world and also the first course of the Neapolitan Christmas eve dinner. It requires well cleaned and very fresh molluscs and a light olive oil, which will not cover molluscs´ gentle taste. It comes even better if pasta is boiled in sea water. I preferred making this dish with both cockles and clams, but if you can’t find cockles, there is absolutely no problem.
First of all we must clean the clams and remove all of their sand. So, we prepare a 5% brine (which means 50 gr salt in a liter of water) and we completely cover clams and cockles. We put them in the fridge and we leave them for at least 12 hours.
When we want to prepare the dish we wash them well and we strain them.
In a big pan with cover, we put a little bit of oil, the wine and the clams and cockles. We put the cover and using the highest heat possible we “open” the molluscs. They will need about 3 minutes. During all this time we move the pan in order to facilitate their opening. When all (or almost all) clams and cockles are open, we remove them from the pan and we strain the remaining liquid. If we wish, we remove and discard the empty valve of the shells, leaving only the part with the flesh.
ATTENTION. If some clams or cockles do not open and remain closed, WE DISCARD THEM, we never use them.
We fill a pot with the sea water (which must be taken from a clean, not contaminated sea) or common salted water and we bring it to boil. We cook the spaghetti, al dente of course.
Meanwhile with a napkin we clean the pan to remove remaining sand. We put on fire, we add some olive oil and after 30 seconds the cherry tomatoes cut in halves. We sauté for a minute, not more. We remove the cherry tomatoes, we lower the heat and we add the white part of the spring onion, cut in thin slices. We gently fry for 3 minutes and we add the garlic clove cut in slices, the chilli pepper, crushed and the molluscs´ liquid and we gently cook for 2 minutes more.
When the pasta is ready we put it in the pan with all the ingredients and we try to “mantecare” it, which means to toss it well with the pan’s liquids.
We put in plates and we serve adding some more olive oil and chopped parsley.
