For this classic Italian recipe, pasta is tossed with garlicky clams and crushed red pepper for a dish that’s greater than the sum of its parts.
“I look forward to going to Sicily for many reasons,” says Frank Castronovo of his biannual trip to southern Italy. “One of them is because I’m amazed at how many times Frank [Falcinelli] can order linguine con vongole.” Their exquisite, super-simple version is packed with garlic and a judicious amount of crushed red pepper. If you prefer, shell the clams before tossing them with their juices in the pasta.
Here, spaghetti con vongole is prepared in bianco as opposed to in rosso, which includes tomatoes and basil. The clam pasta dish originated in Naples. Save for the red pepper, this recipe does not veer far from the first documented one by Ippolito Cavalcanti in his 1839 cookbook. Some modern renditions of spaghetti with clams also contain a splash of dry white wine; if you’d like to give that a try, add it along with the clams in place of the water.
Ingredients
- 1 pound spaghetti
- Kosher salt
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oi
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 2 dozen littleneck clams, scrubbed
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
- Freshly ground black pepper
Directions
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In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the spaghetti until just al dente, then drain the pasta well.
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Meanwhile, in a large, deep skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the minced garlic and crushed red pepper and cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until the garlic is lightly browned, about 1 1/2 minutes. Add the clams and water, cover, and simmer until the clams open and are just cooked through, 5 to 8 minutes. Discard any clams that don’t open.
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Add the spaghetti and the chopped parsley to the clams in the skillet and season with pepper. Toss over moderately high heat just until the spaghetti absorbs some of the juices, about 1 minute. Transfer the spaghetti and clams to shallow bowls and serve right away.
