CookEat Recipe
Short Spaghetti with Clams
Spaghetti broken into spoon-sized pieces, cooked in clam broth and finished with a vegetable soffritto, butter and Parmesan.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: About 1.35 kg live small clams in their shells, cleaned and purged by a reputable supplier; 400 g dried spaghetti; About 1.5 litres water, adjusted with the clam cooking liquid; 2 garlic cloves; Quarter of an onion; 1 small carrot; 1 celery stalk; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; 3 tablespoons olive oil; 25 g butter; 40 g grated Parmesan; Black pepper and salt only if needed; Optional: 5 g dried edible mushrooms; 1–2 tablespoons plain tomato passata.
Step 2
Buy traceable, already purged live clams from a reputable retailer. Keep below 4°C in an open container under a damp cloth. Discard cracked shells or ones that remain open when tapped, then scrub briefly under cold running water.
Step 3
Put the clams in a covered pan with about 500 ml of the water. Bring to a boil and cook until they open, then continue boiling for 3–5 minutes and check that the flesh reaches 74°C. Discard unopened shells. Remove the clam meats. Let the cooking liquid settle briefly and filter through a very fine lined sieve, leaving all sand behind.
Step 4
Finely chop the garlic, onion, carrot, celery and parsley. Cook in the olive oil until softened and beginning to colour. Add the shelled clams, pepper and a little filtered clam liquid and simmer briefly. Keep hot.
Step 5
Break the spaghetti into short pieces about 2–3 cm long, suitable for eating with a spoon. Add fresh water to the remaining filtered clam liquid to make about 1.5 litres. Bring to a boil and cook the spaghetti until just tender, following its package timing. Taste before adding salt. Drain any excess liquid, reserving a little to loosen the sauce.
Step 6
Mix the drained short spaghetti with the clam soffritto, butter and Parmesan. Add a little reserved liquid if needed to keep it moist and serve immediately.
Step 7
For the mushroom variation, soak the dried mushrooms in hot drinking water until softened, rinse away grit, chop and cook thoroughly in the soffritto before adding the clams. Add the optional passata with the clam liquid if desired. Other small food-grade clams or mussels can replace the telline, with the same shellfish checks and cooking method.
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