Spaghetti alle Vongole

How to make it

1. Place the vongole in a large bowl and cover them with cold water seasoned with enough coarse salt that the water tastes like seawater. Only in salted water will the clams spit out their sand. Put the bowl in the refrigerator (see Advance Prep).
   Chef's tip Aim for roughly 30 g salt per liter — plain tap water makes the clams clamp shut instead of filtering. Look for a fine grey layer of sand in the bottom of the bowl; if there's none, they need longer.
2. Pour off the purging water and rinse the vongole under cold water, rubbing the shells against each other until they are smooth and free of sand. Tap each open clam lightly against the edge of the counter and discard any that don't close, as well as any with cracked shells.
3. Bring 4-5 liters of water to a boil in a large pot and salt it more lightly than usual, since the clams' own liquid will salt the sauce later. Let the water come to a full, rolling boil. ⏱ 10 min · passive
   Chef's tip Figure on about half what you normally use, roughly 5 g of salt per liter. The pasta still needs to taste of something on its own, since the broth can't rescue a bland, unseasoned strand.
4. Warm the olive oil in a large, deep pan over medium heat together with the crushed garlic cloves and the crumbled chili. Let them steep in the oil until the garlic is fragrant and just starting to turn golden at the edges. It must not brown, as browned garlic makes the oil bitter.
   Chef's tip Keep the oil below a sizzle — a slow, quiet stream of small bubbles around the garlic, not a crackle. Whole crushed cloves give up their aroma gradually and are far harder to scorch than sliced ones.
5. Turn the heat up to high, add the rinsed vongole to the pan and pour in the white wine. Cover with a lid and shake the pan a couple of times as they cook, until the shells have opened and a pool of clam liquid has collected in the bottom. Take the pan off the heat as soon as the great majority are open, and discard any that stayed shut.
6. Take the pan off the heat and lift the vongole into a bowl with a slotted spoon. Pour the liquid from the pan through a fine-mesh sieve so the last of the sand is caught, then pour the strained broth back into the pan. Fish out the garlic cloves and discard them.
   Chef's tip However well you purge, fine sand settles in the pan bottom. Pour off slowly and stop before the final dregs, even with the sieve — the last spoonful holds the grit.
7. Cook the spaghetti in the boiling water until it is just short of al dente, still distinctly firm at the center, and drain it a minute before the package's stated time, since it will finish cooking in the pan. ⏱ 8 min–10 min · passive
8. Lift the spaghetti straight from the pot into the pan with the strained broth and add 1 dl of the pasta water. Return the pan to high heat and toss the pasta until the liquid has reduced to a light, creamy sauce that clings to the strands.
   Chef's tip The starch in the pasta water is what binds oil and clam broth into something creamy; tossing hard is what emulsifies it. Look for the sauce turning slightly cloudy and coating the strands rather than pooling.
9. Take the pan off the heat and fold in the steamed vongole and the coarsely chopped parsley, so the clams warm through without cooking further and turning rubbery. Season the sauce with salt to taste — it's often salty enough from the clams alone.
10. Twirl the spaghetti and divide it among deep plates. Arrange the clams on top and pour the last of the broth from the pan over them. Serve immediately. Put an empty bowl on the table for the shells — the clams are eaten with your fingers, the pasta with a fork.