🐚 Spaghetti alle vongole
Also known as: Spaghetti with clams, Spaghetti con le vongole, Linguine alle vongole
A dish from Campania in the Accademia Italiana della Cucina recipe: spaghetti with clams (vongole), garlic, olive oil and parsley, with tomatoes or 'in bianco', without them.
Spaghetti alle vongole is a pasta dish: spaghetti with clams (vongole), garlic, extra virgin olive oil, parsley and pepper. The Accademia Italiana della Cucina lists it among the recipes of Campania as 'in the Naples style' (all'uso di Napoli) in two versions: with tomatoes ('con pomodoro') and 'in bianco', without them.
Version with tomatoes, for four people: 400 g of spaghetti, 1 kg of clams, 400 g of fresh sauce tomatoes, a clove of garlic, half a glass of extra virgin olive oil (plus a spoonful for the clams), parsley, salt and pepper. The clams are washed thoroughly, put into a wide pan with a spoonful of oil, covered and cooked over high heat until they open, after a few minutes; their liquid is kept. In another pan a crushed garlic clove is browned in half a glass of oil and removed once golden; the peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes are added with salt, then the clam liquid strained through very fine cloth. At the last moment the clams go into the sauce and it is brought just back to the boil. The spaghetti are cooked in plenty of salted water, drained very al dente and tossed in the pan with the sauce, then finished with chopped parsley and freshly ground pepper.
Version 'in bianco': the clams are opened and their liquid is filtered and kept; two garlic cloves are fried in half a glass of oil and removed; the clams and their liquid are added and brought to a single boil; the spaghetti are tossed in and finished with chopped parsley and pepper. For more flavour the Accademia says 400 g of shelled telline (small clams) can be added to this version.
The Accademia's recipes use no cheese.
Facts
| Raw material | Spaghetti, vongole clams, olive oil, garlic, parsley, pepper; tomatoes in the version with tomatoes 1 |
|---|---|
| Region | Campania, Naples style (Italy) 1 |
| Main use | Pasta dish; with tomatoes or 'in bianco' 1 |
How it connects to Pasta
🐚 Spaghetti alle vongole → related → 🫒 Olive oil ← related ← 🍝 Pasta
Links
- What is used
- Spaghetti, Linguine
- Part of
- Pasta sauces and dishes
- In other topics
- 🫒 Olive oil
Frequently asked questions
Spaghetti alle vongole: with or without tomatoes?
The Accademia Italiana della Cucina gives both: a Neapolitan version with tomatoes and an 'in bianco' version with garlic, oil, parsley and pepper only.
What happens to the clam liquid?
In both versions it is kept; in the version with tomatoes it is strained through very fine cloth and added to the sauce, in the 'in bianco' version it is filtered and cooked with the clams.
Is cheese added to spaghetti with clams?
No. The Accademia's recipes contain no cheese; the dish is finished with chopped parsley and ground pepper.
Recipes
What to read next
- 🫒 Olive oil — Oil pressed from the fruit of the olive tree.
- Linguine — Long dry pasta with a flattened, slightly convex section, like a small narrow flat tagliatella; producers call it the Ligurian long pasta for pesto.
Similar
🐟 Pasta con le sarde · 🌶️ Spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino · 🍅 Spaghetti alla puttanesca · 🧅 Bigoli in salsa · 🥬 Orecchiette alle cime di rapa · 🍆 Pasta alla Norma