This is how you make the famous vongole from Spaghetteria at home
Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the foodies of online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it, and what to cook. This time our chefs serve you: the famous vongole from Spaghetteria.
It's all fun and games that we can go back to Italy this summer, but that's not really necessary anymore. Spaghetteria has put an online video series that instantly transports you to la bella Italia. And you also learn to make pasta like a pro. What am I saying, like an Italian. Hoppa!
From penne all’arrabbiata to spaghetti carbonara; Spag-chef Gianluca shows you how it's done. And hello, can we give a round of applause for this man and his flair? As far as I'm concerned, he deserves his own TV show. 24Kitchen and RTL, are you listening? I see a star on the rise here.
Anyway, pasta then. This time: linguine alle vongole. One of the most popular pastas from Spaghetteria and to get it extra right, I asked the chef himself for some fine tips and tricks (to read under the video). Make use of it.
Well, the mise en place and cleaning the vongole are very important. How do you wash them really well? “Make sure they are well submerged in water with about 100 grams of fine salt. This will make them ‘spit’ out the sand that is in the shell. If you don't do this first, they will do it when you actually start cooking them. A waste of your dish.”
What should you pay attention to when buying vongole? “A quality check is very important: they should not be older than a day and they should definitely not be open – then they are dead. Check carefully that the mollusk doesn't come out. Sometimes the mouth of the mollusk sticks out a bit from the shell, if you touch it and it immediately retracts, it is still alive and fresh.‘
That flame in the pan ‘shock heat’ looks impressive, but how do you do that safely at home? “Not! If you are in a professional kitchen or if you are a chef; go ahead, but don’t try this at home haha!”
Which wine do you recommend? “Definitely a fresh, dry white wine. It’s a summer dish so you want something fresh and cooling. A Trebbiano from Abruzzo or a Soave classico from Venice are good options. A Vermentino from Sardinia is also nice with it.”
In the video, it talks about ‘mantecare’, what is that? “There isn't a real translation, but it is a technique where you mix the ingredients to achieve a creamy texture. In this case, through the pasta water and/or the cooking liquid from the vongole.”
Although we – with a few exceptions – know that you don't eat vongole with shell and all, opinions on how to eat it are divided. You have team – first take everything out of the shell and then eat – and team – take out of the shell, bite, take out of the shell, bite. What is the real Italian way? “In all of Italy, from North to South, it applies: first you take the vongole out of the shell, then you mix it with the pasta so that you have a bit of vongole with every bite. Buon appetito!”
For convenience, here’s the recipe for linguine alle vongole: For 4 people:
500 to 600 g linguine or spaghetti
1 kg of venus clams (preferably medium-sized)
1 bunch of parsley
1 clove of garlic
1/2 fresh chili pepper
extra virgin olive oil
1/2 glass of dry white wine
salt and pepper
Here's how to make it:
Wash and rinse the venus clams. Soak them in cold water with some salt for 20 minutes, so they open up. Repeat this a few times if possible. Discard damaged shells.
Wash the parsley, chop finely, and set aside.
Put a pot of plenty of water and some salt on the fire for the pasta.
Chop the garlic roughly and slice the chili pepper, and sauté these in a frying pan with a splash of olive oil until the garlic is golden brown.
Add the venus clams, cover the pan, and let it sit for a few seconds on high heat. Lower the heat, remove the lid from the pan, and deglaze with the white wine. Quickly put the lid back on and let the venus clams cook for 3-5 minutes until they are all open. Shake the pan back and forth occasionally.
Remove the pan from the heat and pour the liquid from the pan into a small saucepan.
Set the pan with the clams aside and cover with a lid so that the meat of the clams stays moist.
Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling salted water until al dente and drain. Bring the small saucepan with clam juice to a boil over high heat and cook the spaghetti while stirring for about half a minute.
Place the linguine on the plates, distribute the venus clams and the juice over the plates, and sprinkle with parsley.
