DELICIOUS vongole pasta!
A little taste of summer during winter in Tuscany
Do you get the winter blues, too?
I often do and wish I didn’t. I really want to love winter. I see its romantic potential! Crackling fires, cosy knit jumpers, cuddles, warm belly food, snow, spending an entire day cooking, warm drinks, a gorgeous little cottage with a picket fence and frosty windows that you can only access via a small winding road. Okay, so I imagine The Holiday with Cameron Diaz and Jude Law. That’s how winter should feel!
But I’m not in a sweet little cottage, it’s not snowing and my wardrobe got the memo for a colourful skimpy summer. I’m an Australian summer baby through and through.
So I cured my winter blues the best way I know how. With food. Of course.
The sun was shining so we dragged our dining room table outside, played one of my summery playlists, popped open a bottle of wine & made vongole (clam) pasta. So simple, so delicious. Summer nostalgia in your mouth.
Ingredients:
1 kg Vongole / Clams
1/2 or a whole pack of Linguine or Spaghetti depending on your appetite or company!
A small handful of Parsley + the stalks!
1/2 of a fresh Chilli (not super spicy, just for flavour)
2 -3 Cloves of Garlic
Lots of good EVOO!
Lemon
You create:
Soak your vongole overnight in fresh water to purify them & draw out any sand.
If you have an aluminium pan this is the best! (I’ll explain later.) Putting the heat on medium, pop a decent amount of olive oil, a lot more than you usually would, in your pan with the whole garlic cloves, diced chilli & parsley stalks. Fry for a few minutes then add the vongole.
Cook your vongole until they start to open. Once the majority have opened up turn off the heat. Grab a fork or use your finger & take the delicious vongole meat out of the shell & into a bowl. Leave a few vongole in their shell because it looks pretty when serving. Once finished put the heat back on to try opening up the remaining vongole.
Meanwhile put water on to boil for the pasta. Adding a good pinch or two of salt. Cook the pasta for 5 minutes & transfer to the pan that has the garlic, chilli, & all the remaining juices from cooking the vongole. Add more olive oil & the vongole back to the pan. Make sure you keep the starchy pasta water.
To continue cooking the pasta, ladle small amounts of the pasta water into the saucepan. As you do, pick up the pan & with your wrist, give it a gentle but good toss. Trying not to get the pasta everywhere but laughing if you do! The combination of the pasta, starchy water, the generous amount of olive oil & the aluminium pan coats the pasta in a slightly thick & creamy sauce.
Turn the heat off. Add finely diced fresh parsley & some grated lemon zest to serve! If you add the parsley before you take it off the heat it will go bitter. And no cheese.
Have with a delicious glass of white wine, your favourite book, friend or lover.
Buon appetito! 🌞
Enjoy, you hungry thing xx
How winter feels in Tuscany 💛 Beautiful, of course.
Summery (Aussie style) playlist 🌞:
Dreaming of travelling to Italy? Pasta, people watching, gelato, the mediterranean sea, passion, vineyards, bikinis, vespas? …of course you are!
I live between Tuscany, Italy, and Australia. See some of my most delicious travel tips for Italy below.
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