Spaghetti pasta with clams and mussels

• 2 hours to prepare • 10 minutes to cook • Serves 4

 

10 MINUTES 

Flip flops, shorts and the fan are in.
Or they should be, as Milan is tropical, this time of the year.

The rise in temperature had me craving a seaside, tasty meal, and with no excessive richness. I decided on a house favorite and made it new by tweaking the recipe just a little.
This is just a slight variation on my go-to Spaghetti con Vongole. I used mussels in the recipe because I had some left, from a previous recipe.

With lots of good, fruity olive oil, garlic and fresh shellfish you really don’t need much else. Since the olive oil would make up most of the sauce here, try to use an oil here that you like so much you wouldn’t mind drinking it if you could. I might even consider omitting the wine next time to really let the olive oil and clam flavor shine.

This recipe should serve four but it's Nina's favourite dish since forever, so I hardly managed to taste it at all, ah ah. Enjoy!

Here's what you will need for the 4-serving recipe:

400 g spaghetti pasta
500 g fresh clams with shells

200 g frozen mussels
100 ml white wine
1 clove garlic
1 handful finely diced parsley
EVO oil
salt and pepper

1. Place clams in a bowl with salted water (20 g of salt in about half a liter of water) and let them there for 2 hours. At the end of this time, take them out of the water, being careful not to lift any dirt from the bottom
2. Bring a pot of water up to a rolling boil, salt the water and cook spaghetti for half of their time, according to packet instructions
3. Preheat pan over medium heat and add 3 tablespoons of EVO oil and garlic. Once oil starts to bubble, toast the garlic for a couple of minutes
4. Add frozen mussels and let them simmer for 5 minutes
5. If using fresh clams, add your fresh clams into the pan and cook for 7 minutes with the lid on. Discard the garlic and closed clams
6. When there is 1 min left before the clams finish cooking, add in white wine and take off the lid to make it evaporate, then filter out the clams' water and keep aside separately
7. Once spaghetti is drained as half cooked, drag directly into the pan. Add parsley and clams' water, and continue with the cooking as you would do with a a risotto. Seasons with freshly ground pepper and serve with a garnish of fresh parsley, mussels and clams

In the following, Nutrition Facts of this dish are indicated. Data is provided per serving.