Spaghetti with clams is one of my favourite pasta dishes because it reminds me of the Venetian area where I was born. This is a traditional Neapolitan recipe that has become a classic of Italian cuisine.

Ingredients for 4 people

• 320 g dry spaghetti alla chitarra
• 1 kg clams
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 bunch of parsley
• 1/2 glass of dry white wine
• Extra virgin olive oil to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Clams [Vongole]

Preparation methodology

The first thing to do is to “purge” the clams, i.e. soak them in salted water to ensure that they release any sand they may contain.

If you’re wondering how to do this quickly and easily, I’ll tell you right now.

To ensure that the clams are perfectly clean, it is necessary to recreate the marine environment from which they were taken.

Put fresh water in a bowl and add 35 g of salt per litre of water.

This is a standard weight that will be more than fine, although there are marine areas that are more or less salty.

Make sure the salt is completely dissolved before immersing the clams in water. Ideally, the clams should not touch the bottom of the container so as to prevent them from picking up the sand when we touch them.

A grating that keeps them slightly suspended from the bottom and allows the sand to settle instead would be ideal.

Beware of chlorine, which clams do not like at all. If tap water smells of chlorine or contains a lot of it, it is better to use bottled water.

Before draining the clams, I recommend dropping them, one by one, onto a tray or an inclined baking tray so that the “empty” or broken ones can be immediately recognised (by the different sounds they make) and can be discarded.

Once the clams have been completely purged, you can start the cooking phase.

Put a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and the clove of garlic in a Ghisanativa pan.

Once the oil has taken on flavour and heated up, add the clams and, over a high flame, pour in the white wine.

As soon as the wine evaporates, immediately cover with the lid and let the clams cook for a few minutes (until they open), then remove from the heat, add some of the chopped parsley and wait for the clams to cool a little.

Once the clams have cooled, set aside some clams to use, leaving their shells on, as decoration for the dish.

Clean the remaining clams by removing their shells and set them aside.

Filter the cooking liquid from the clams and put a pot of lightly salted water on the stove and bring to the boil.

Boil the spaghetti for a few minutes. Just long enough for the spaghetti to become pliable and can be put into the dish more easily.

Drain, the spaghetti keeping the cooking water and put them in Ghisanativa together with the clams cooking liquid.

Cook, stirring and adding, if necessary, some cooking water from the pasta.

Cook the spaghetti using the “risotto-style” pasta technique, you will see that a wonderful cream will be created naturally, thanks to the starches.

When the spaghetti is very “al dente”, turn off the heat, add the cleaned clams, the remaining chopped parsley and add salt and pepper if necessary.

All that’s left to do is to serve on a plate and decorate with the clams with their shells set aside earlier.

With Ghisanativa risotto-style pasta is beyond compare!

Matteo Bellini

“I graduated from the International Academy of Italian Cuisine (ALMA) of Gualtiero Marchesi in Colorno (PR) a few years ago.

In these more than twenty years of love for cooking, I have worked in many different realities: from pubs to starred kitchens, from chains to traditional restaurants, from catering to private events, giving value to every experience carried out with passion in the kitchen. I then became a cookery teacher for numerous Italian institutes, holding courses also for the Veneto Region, on cruise ships and in many clubs and private cookery schools.

A pioneer of Personal Chefs in Italy, I am known as CuocoPersonale (Personal Cooking Trainer) and owner of the “Chef del Benessere” (Wellbeing Chef) project.

Today I am a father, a Chef, a cooking trainer, a consultant and a writer “of taste.”

This recipe was prepared on