The first time I ate this dish was at Chioggia, which is next to the laguna in Venice where they catch wonderful vongole (clams). This dish is inspired by that memory of fishing for vongole with the amazing city of Venice in the background and combines classic Italian flavours with its freshest seafood.
Ingredients
- 300 g/10 oz fregola (or any other dried pasta of your choice)
- 2 garlic cloves, sliced
- ½ red chilli (chile), thinly sliced
- 1 kg/2 lb 4 oz clams, cleaned
- 3 tbsp white wine
- 4 tbsp canned plum tomatoes, puréed
- handful of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
- extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling and frying
- salt and pepper
How to Make It
- Cook the fregola for 10 minutes in a large pan of lightly salted boiling water. Drain and add a drizzle of olive oil to prevent the fregola sticking together.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan (skillet) over a medium-high heat and sauté the garlic and chilli (chile) without letting them brown. After 2 minutes add the clams and deglaze the pan with the white wine. As soon as the wine starts to bubble, add the puréed tomatoes, cover the pan and leave the clams to simmer until their shells have opened. Add the parsley and fregola and heat through thoroughly.
- Drizzle over a little olive oil, grind over some black pepper and serve straight from the pan.
