Spaghetti Alle Vongole

Spaghetti Alle Vongole 

Spaghetti Alle Vongole - simple to prepare and good to eat, particularly with some warm home-made garlic bread to mop up the remaining gravy from the plate. 

For me, it was the perfect choice for a simple, fuss-free catch-up session with 3 old buddies in the comforts of my home whilst the hubby was away on business in the States. Nowadays, I usually meet up with these 3 in a larger group setting at fancy restaurants or popular eateries at regular, monthly intervals. 

So this was a nice, quiet change as well as a throwback to the past when we used to commune and cook together at each other's homes on some weekends. Those were the days when home cooked meals were scarce as we spend weekdays and nights huddled at the office and even later nights gallivanting round town after work hours looking for some fun, food and drinks.     

I had all my ingredients prepared before hand and stored in the refrigerator awaiting the arrival of my friends. 

When my friends arrived, it took all of 10 minutes to toss up the Spaghetti Alle Vongole (including the 5 minutes cooking time for the spaghetti per package instructions) while my very helpful buds, SC and PC  took on the task of buttering the garlic bread before popping them into the oven for 5 minutes.  

Many hands make light work !

Ingredients : (Serves 3-4)

350 g spaghetti ( I used Barilla's No.3 cooked for 5 minutes till al-dente in boiling water , salt and some oil according to package instructions)

1.5 kg of lokam clams - shell included

3 large tomatoes, diced

1 bulb of garlic, roughly minced

100 g of cilantro leaves

3-4 dried chillis, chopped up or minced (whilst kept dry) into chilli flakes

1 cupful or 200 -250 ml of dry white wine  

3 tbsp of olive oil or normal oil

Salt and freshly grounded black pepper to suit your taste

The Cooking Bit :

On 1 stove, put about a litre of water to the boil with a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of oil. Place your spaghetti in to cook when water begins to boil, timed according to the instructions accompanying the spaghetti.

About 3 minutes before the spaghetti is about to be done, pour 3 tbsp of oil into a large pan or wok (on a separate stove) on low heat. Saute the garlic and dried chillies for a minute. ( I prefer to remove some of the garlic and all of the chillis at this stage to set aside for later inclusion into the dish)

Turn up the heat or intensity of the fire and throw in the clams. Include the wine at this stage and cover with a lid while you bring the clams to a boil for about 2 minutes or so. Clams will start to open up on its own accord when cooked. 

When sauce starts to reduce a little on high heat ( in about 2 minutes or more),  throw in the diced tomatoes and let sauce simmer for about 30 seconds. Put in the roughly chopped cilantro leaves.

Turn down the flames, and introduce your spaghetti into the pan/wok at this stage. Season with sea salt and a generous sprinkling of black pepper. Be sure to taste as you gradually increase the salt content. (If you want a your spaghetti sauce to be a little thicker, add in about 2-3 tbsp of the water in which you used to boil your spaghetti)

Reintroduce the sauteed dry chilli flakes and garlic (which was set aside earlier) and give the mixture a good toss. Dish onto plates and serve immediately with some garlic bread. 

The Vongole Aftermath

For dessert, we finished off with individual strawberry pavlovas with chocolate sauce (also another easy to do dish - as the meringue and chocolate sauce may be prepared ahead of time while the cream may be whipped up on the spot with assembly of the fruits and sauce topping to follow immediately after).

Crazy as it seems  but the following is a picture of what we topped off all that food from dinner and dessert with - DURIANS! Thanks to one of my buds, CKS, who had come prepared with this most unusual offering. 

What can I say - we've got crazy tastebuds and crazy tummies to match!