Another day

Good morning,

Here we are again, another day and the weather is much better and it helps the mood.
Before I give you the recipe today, did you know that when you boil pasta never, never add oil to the water just stirr it straight away and it will never stick together.

The recipe for today is Spaghetti alle vongole a real Neapolitan dish, one of my favourites:
Spaghetti with clams

For two people
180 gr. spaghetti (or more if you like it as I do)
300 gr. clams (if you can buy the dark grey and not the flat white ones)
2 cloves of garlic
1 small bunch of flat leaves parsley
1 chilli
5tablespoon of e.v. olive oil (italian from the south if you can)
salt
8 cherry tomatoes if you like it red, we say macchiato in italian.


Before I give you the recipe today I will like to suggest not to use wine in this dish because what we want is the real salty flavour of the clams, and if somebody tells you other wise they are wrong, the only reason to do so is to cover the flavour of the shellfish  if it is not fresh (and you do not want to eat not very fresh shellfish).

Boil a large pot of water and  a pinch of salt, and add the spaghetti and stir straight away.
In a pan heat the oil and add the chopped garlic and the chilli based on how hot you like it, before is to coloured add the clams and cover for3 minutes, then taste and add the chopped parsley, and if you think it needs some salt add it to taste (when we do it back home becouse the water of the Mediterranean sea is very salty  compared to the Ocean we often don't need salt in it) and leave for 2 minutes.
If you like the tomato version add the cherry cut in half just when the clams start to open and cook for an extra minute, then when sauce taste good add the pasta al dente and stir together for another minute, and remember not to over cook the clams if not they get dry and small.
Serve in a bowl and finish with a garnish of fresh parsley and a bit of fresh olive oil,
Buon appetito I hope you will like it as much as I do.
Ciao a domani