Spaghetti alle Vongole - Spaghetti with Clams

This is my version of Spaghetti Alle Vongole, a classic, popular southern Italian dish found all along the coast during summer. If you haven’t tried it before, this is a very light, simple dish of spaghetti with parsley, garlic, cherry tomatoes and clams that's finished with a touch of lemon juice for freshness. It’s very easy and super quick to make, you're going to love it. 

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 200g spaghetti 
• ​20g parsley leaves finely chopped and stalks whole 
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed with the skin on
• ½ a lemon  
• 600g clams soaked in salted cold water for 1 hour
• 200g cherry tomatoes, half or quarter them depending on their size
• Extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. On a medium-high heat, add a generous glug of olive oil and fry the garlic for about 30 seconds or so to flavour the oil. Add the parsley stalks and then go in with the clams, a dash of water and close the pan with  a fitting lid.
2. After 2 minutes take the lid off and to avoid overcooking the clams, pick out those that are open and transfer aside inside a bowl. Repeat the process and at the end, discard any that do not open. As soon as you've finished cooking all of them, sieve the juice inside the bowl with the clams. This will remove any sand or debris from the juice.
3. Still on a medium-high heat, add the tomatoes along with a drizzle of olive oil to the same pan where you cooked your clams. Cook for 1 minute then add in the sieved clam juices (but not the clams) and cover the pan with the lid. Turn the heat down to medium and meanwhile cook your spaghetti in plenty of salted boiling water.
4. Once the pasta is cooked al dente, add this to the pan with the tomatoes and the clam juice. If needed pour in a  a little bit of pasta water to loosen the sauce. 
5. Increase the temperature to a medium-high heat again, add the fresh parsley and the cooked clams. Stir everything well all together for 1 minute. 
6. Add a the juice of half a lemon, a drizzle of olive oil and turn the heat off. Stir and toss everything together again for a further minute or so to allow the beautiful juices from the clams to be absorbed into the spaghetti. Serve right away.

Watch the recipe video

Back to recipes