A scent, a flavor has the sudden capability to bring us somewhere or some-when and even to make us to dive for an instant into a specific mood.
My great grandmother, Nonna Vecchia, died in 1961. I was 3 years old.
Yet, I remember her very well. My childwood in Giglio island has been a paradise. I remember much of it, and I am grateful for that.
Nonna Vecchia could not get down the stairs going forward, but she could lean on the railing and go down the stairs backwards. At every step she yelled . “oh, issa!”.
She used to take me to the patch of sand under the hotel La Pergola and together we collected the empty shells of the hermit crabs.
There were a lot of them. Once at home she put a big mattress needle on the fire until it was incandescent. With it, she pierced all the shells to make necklaces.
We made many of them, for my joy.
Sometimes she collected little clams in the small sea pond between the sand and the dock. I was entranced by those wonders.
I don’t remember to have seen or eaten spaghetti with clams “in bianco” – that is “white”, without tomatoes – before the 70s, when turism started to be the first activity in Giglio and restaurants pulled with with people willing to taste the “real” taste of the island.
For me real taste of spaghetti with clams was with the cherry tomatoes from the vegetable garden of my grandomother.
You find the recipe below… Although I don’t think you can find the cherry tomatoes from the same orchard….
In the culinary program of the membershipsite found on https://gigliocooking.academy/, I teach “techniques”, but also how to change recipes to accomplish your personal liking, the season, the availability of the market.
Spaghetti with clams can be simple “in bianco” as in the recipe of the fifth newsletter. Or they can have the twist of your personal touch: with tomatoes, with zucchini and pine nuts, with black cabbage. Just you have to know HOW.
This is my target when I teach: to give you the “methods” to change recipes and the will to evolve from basics.
- Ingredients for 4 people:
1 kg (2,2 Lb) clams, previously left to clear in salted water for a few hours
350 gr (12 oz) spaghetti
2 cloves of garlic
chopped fresh parsley
chili pepper (optional)
24 ripe cherry tomatoes
extra virgin olive oil
salt
Open the clams over medium heat in a covered pan, together with a little oil, garlic and parsley. As soon as they are opened, filter their water with a white cotton towel and keep it aside.
Chop some parsley and set aside.
Wash the cherry tomatoes, cut them in halves or quarters.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta in it.
Meanwhile, in a large skillet, sauté two minced garlic cloves (and chilli, if using) in extra virgin olive oil untili t starts to float.
Add the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes.
Drain the spaghetti al dente, put them in the pan with the garlic and oil and add the water from the clams. Turn often to finish cooking the pasta. Add more parsley, clams (better shelled, leaving some aside with the shell as decoration) and serve immediately.
Marcella Ansaldo © 2021