Monday 10 January 2011

Spaghetti with Clams and Tomatoes - Spaghetti alle Vongole com Pomodorini

Rezept auf Deutsch - Spaghetti mit Venusmuschel und Tomaten
中文食譜 - 蜆肉番茄意大利粉

Spaghetti with Clams and Tomatoes
Spaghetti alle Vongole com Pomodorini
Ingredients for 4 servings

  • 400g Spaghetti
  • 1 small red chile
  • 3 cloves of garlic 
  • 1/2 onion
  • 500g cherry tomatoes
  • 1kg small clams
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • few stalks fresh parsley
  • olive oil
  • salt and black pepper for seasoning
Preparation

  • In a soup pot, cook the spaghetti in salted boiling water until al dente according to the packing instruction. Turn off the heat and drain the pasta in a sieve.
  • Deseed the red chile and cut into small pieces, peel and mince the garlic and onion, cut the cherry tomatoes into half and set aside.
  • Spread the clams evenly in a large pan. Cover the pan and cook the clams in high heat for 3~5 minutes. Put the opened clams into a bowl and save the juice. Discard any clams that do not open or sandy.  
  • Heat olive oil in a pan, sauté red chile, garlic and onion in medium heat for 1 minute. Add cherry tomatoes and sauté 2 more minutes until slightly soften.
  • Add the white wine and spaghetti. If the spaghetti seems too dry, then add ¼~½ cup of clam juice. Finally, add the clams, chop and fold in the parsley. Season carefully with salt and pepper. Mix well the spaghetti and serve with a lemon wedge.

Sea Lion Woman - Feist

The clams dig by myself, super fresh and delicious.

Pui O beach in Hong Kong Lantau Island, the clear water and soft sand.

I reserved the big clams as my mother's birthday gift.

Ingredients checklist: Spaghetti, small red chile, garlic, onions, tomatoes, clams, white wine, parsley, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Cut the chiles open, discard the stem and seeds, leave the meat and cut into small pieces.

Get ready all the ingredients! Cook the spaghetti, cut the garlic, onion and tomatoes.

When you hear the popping noise, it means the clams are opening. I like to transfer them into a bowl once it is opened, and throw away the sandy and close calms : (
The clam juice may contain sand and dirts, drain them away when reserving the juice.

Slightly fry the red chile, garlic and onion to sizzle.

And fry the tomatoes until slightly soften.

My wine guy just arrived. He brought me a vintage 2009 Graves from Chateau Villa Bel Air.
I love cooking with wine, because I am fascinated by the fruity sweet vaporized from the alcohol. 

Add the spaghetti, clams, clam juice, parsley and seasoning. Don't forget a touch of lemon juice can bring up the freshness taste of the clams. 

The Hong Kong local seafood, the original taste from south italy. A perfect combination of Spaghetti alle Vongole com Pomodorini...Buon Appetito!

Mini Note:

Italy is surrounded by sea and gifted from the nature. Since ancient time it abounded with wide range of seafood. Clam digging used to be a poor people activity, cause they could not afford buying food from the market,  and so they dug around in the sand to get their dinner ingredients. Time after time, seafood and clam become a staple of Italian cuisine history.

For example, the Christmas eve dinner "The Feast of the Seven Fishes  - festa dei sette pesci". In tradition holy days, meat and dairy products were forbidden in Roman Catholic, so people prepared their dishes from seafood and vegetables like octopus salad, spaghetti with clams, Crab stuffed mushrooms, dried salt cod, fried eel, shrimps and scallops. After the big seafood feast, the whole family visited the midnight mass at church.

Today, if you order Spaghetti with Clams in a restaurant in italy. The waiter may ask you "without - in bianco" or "with tomatoescom Pomodorini". For sure, both preparations are very tasty.

Mini Tips:
  • For me, I dig my clams from the beach, so I only need to bring a bucket with seawater to bring my clams home. For most of the people who buy clams from the market, just soak the clams in water with added sea salt, and the clams will spit the sands after few hours. Fresh seafood must be eaten within 24 hours.
  • The clams I get from the beach called "sand white - 沙白". In italy, the major species are Vongole, Cozza and Tellina. You can use any type of clams as you like, the most important ingredient is "fresh".
Reference recipe: Italian Food Forever by Deborah Mele

10 comments:

  1. thank you! I'm glad that you like : )

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello!

    I found your nice blog while Searching for images of clams in Hong Kong. What a happy face with these great clams which you dug on the beach in Pui O!

    I am very surprized to see the clam (large and small) of Pui O, because they look different from the clams from Shui Hao in Hong Kong.

    Several years ago, Dr Benny Chan of Hong Kong Univeristy (he moved to Taiwan later) gave me the clam shells from Shui Hao for my study. He published a nice field guide book on Hong Kong Sandy Shores. Please look at my blog in English: http://beachshell.blogzine.jp/blog/

    The shells of Pui O looks just like the one we have in Japan: Meretrix lamarckii (scientific name of the species, and I use it my e-mail address). If you look at my homepage on these clams, you may be able to recognize it among the Japanese Meretrix.

    Now, I would very much interested in studying the shells from Pui O beach, large and small, for comparison with Japanese ones. I would be extremely grateful if you would kindly send the shells (after eating the meat, you may not need the empty shells) for my study.

    Because I study changes in shell shape as they grow, I would like to have all different sizes.

    I can send our beautifull shells for decoration on your table, in exchange, if you like.

    Please leave your comments on my English blog.

    Thank you very much.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear beachmollusc,

    Just back from Germany and saw your message. I am very happy someone read my blog post seriously.

    Yes, I have many shells at home. Coz usually after eating, I would keep the shell until next time I go to the beach again, and return them into the sea. So, after million years later, they will back to the nature and become sands, am I correct?

    I also dig clam in 水口 Shui Hau before, I surprised that the clams looks very different, even they are in the same island and just few beaches away. Shui Hau also have more types of clams, but even I treat them the same way bringing home, they die much faster : ( So, I never go back again!!!

    Yes, I can send you different sizes of shells, please send me your Japan address and what you need.

    Have fun : )

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Mia,

    I have been to a field trip to collect shells for my study.

    Your kind reply made me very happy and I look forward to studying the shells from Hong Kong.

    I would like all available large and small sizes to study changes in shell outlines as the clams grow and also a large number (as many as available, perhaps one hundred or more) of small shells to get statistics of color variations in order to compare your shells with ours, if not too much trouble for you.

    My address is:

    Dr. Masashi Yamaguchi
    9658-2 Shiomi, Hyuga City, Miyazaki Prefecture,
    883-0033 Japan

    Thank you very much!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello beachmollusc,

    Just checked I do have hundred of shells at home. I remember and they looks like purely from Pui O, coz the Shui Hau clams die too fast and became very bad smell so I didn't keep it.

    You look in my Pui O beach picture, it is a very smooth sandy beach. But Shiu Hau is more or less a rocky beach, there are also a mangrove at the end, maybe that's part of the reason they have different kind of clams. I just guess, I'm not professional like you : P
    http://bit.ly/vzx0hD

    I don't really walk pass the post office in my daily life, please wait a little while, I will prepare a good packing first.

    Have a nice weekend

    MIA

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Mia,

    I have a book: The Seashore Ecology of Hong Kong (written by Prof. Morton), in addition to the Sandy Shore Guidebook of Hong Kong by Dr. Chan.

    These books described and illustrated the clams of Pui O and Shui Hau, but the authors regarded the clams only one species.

    You are right about the clams from the two beaches are different species. There are three different species of the Asian Hard Clam (Meretrix in scientific term) in Hong Kong, but Marine Biologists in Hong Kong University did not notice differences in two beaches.

    The teacher of the site you cited simply followed the books. If they did cook and eat the clams like you did, they must have noticed differences in shell color, form and thickness (Pui O clam must be much heavier).

    You are very kind and please send the clam shells when you will have time.

    Have a nice weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hello Mia. My name is Becca, I live in Dallas and I write a blog www.from3906.blogspot.com
    I am so looking forward to following you and yours - such beautiful photos, especially in this clam article. I'd like to recommend a book to you; Gift From The Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. More later....

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dear Becca, I love your blog too, simple with lively pictures. Music, Nature, Neighborhood... there are so many interesting thing for us to look and feel. I don't read much novel but that looks like a wonderful book, thanks recommending me : )

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dear beachmollusc,

    Sorry I haven't post your shell yet! Will do soonnnn!!! I think the teacher say the clams from both beaches are same type because in Chinese, they all called 沙白。In the market, the stalls sell small and brown clams also named 沙白,maybe for Chinese we don't divide it to different names as studying.

    Shui Hau clamming - http://bit.ly/vTs3Ou
    Pui O beach - http://bit.ly/rJm3lO
    Pui O clams - http://bit.ly/rrbq6F , http://bit.ly/vMBpYw

    ReplyDelete