Instructions
Purge the clams 2 hours in cold water with 30 g salt per liter, changing the water once. Scrub, and discard any that stay open when tapped.
130 minWarm the oil with the crushed garlic, parsley stems, and chile in your widest pan until the garlic turns ivory.
4 minRaise the heat, add the clams (and wine if using), cover, and let them open in the steam, shaking the pan, 3 to 4 minutes.
4 minTip everything into a bowl. Strain the liquor through a fine sieve back into the pan; shell half the clams, keep the rest dressed.
8 minBoil the spaghetti in lightly salted water and lift them out 3 minutes early, straight into the simmering clam liquor.
8 minFinish the pasta in the pan, tossing and adding pasta water as it drinks, until al dente in a sauce that clings. Return all the clams for the last minute.
4 minOff the heat, rain in the chopped parsley and a thread of raw oil, toss hard to emulsify, and serve immediately.
Chef's Tips
- The sieve is sacred: One grain of sand cancels an hour of care. Strain the clam liquor even if it looks clear; especially when it looks clear.
- Undercook, then finish in the sea: The pasta’s last minutes in clam liquor are where the dish happens; spaghetti drained fully cooked can only be coated, never converted.
- With a dozen cherry tomatoes blistered in the oil first it becomes vongole in rosso, a summer dialect; the white version remains the mother tongue.
