Spaghetti alle Vongole in Rosso - Revisited

The problem that we have with food blogging is that we're always trying to post new recipes. Consequently we don't get to eat our 'old favorite' comfort foods very often. Today we are fighting back against the tyranny of the blog and re-posting an old favorite with some small modifications to the recipe. We think that the revised recipe is absolutely the best ever; so we will cook it this way again. The original was posted on January 20th of this year for reference.

Linguine With Red Clam Sauce has long been one of our favorite seafood meals. But from our recent studies, we suspect that it is an Italian-American version of the Italian Spaghetti alle Vongole in Rosso which means spaghetti with clams in tomato sauce. So we decided that we would go back to the roots of this wonderful dish and prepare it as close as we could to the version served in Southern Italy.

After further work, we came up with a recipe that seems to embody the spirit of the dish as well as we can understand it. It was delicious and definitely different with a much lighter tomato flavor allowing the flavors of the clams, shallots, garlic, butter and olive oil to come through. Both the dishes are excellent in our book; but they are definitely different so they both have a place in our diet.

Serves: 2
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time:
Sauce with clams: 15 minutes more or less
Spaghetti: 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS:
2 pounds of little-neck clams, rinsed in cold water. Discard any that are open.
16 to 20 large cherry tomatoes, cut in half
8 ounces dry spaghetti
3 to 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup white wine
3 large cloves of garlic, sliced thin
1 1/2tablespoons unsalted butter
1 shallot, chopped fine
2 pinches red pepper flakes
Some Italian parsley

PREPARATION:
1. Put the butter, 2 T of the olive oil and the diced shallot into a 12 inch pan and saute over medium-high heat until they get soft and translucent. About 3 to 5 minutes.
2. Lower the heat to medium-low, add the tomatoes, garlic and red pepper flakes to the pan and saute for two minutes; stop before tomatoes start to wrinkle.
3. Start the spaghetti cooking in salted water.
4. Add the white wine and clams to the pan, cover and bring to a low boil mostly covered for 10 to 12 minutes or until the clams open and the wine is almost completely reduced.
Note: Discard any clams that didn't open completely as they were not healthy.
5. When spaghetti is cooked, rinse, drain and shake to remove excess moisture.
6. Turn the pan heat off, add in the spaghetti, 2 T of chopped parsley and 1 or 2 T olive oil and mix until everything is coated with the sauce. Then serve immediately in warm bowl or on a warm plate..

PLATING THE MEAL:
1. Place the clams, spaghetti and sauce on warmed shallow bowls or deep plates.
2. Garnish with Italian parsley or basil.
3. Serve with garlic bread or a baguette.
Note: Parmesan cheese would not normally be served with this dish.

Bon appetit,
Tom and Anita