Paccheri and Clams Recipe

Paccheri alle vongole (paccheri with clams), a first course that tastes of the sea, fragrant and ideal to prepare for lunch or a dinner with friends. The advice for preparing a chef's dish is to use our paccheri with lemon and a pinch of bergamot extra virgin olive oil as seasoning, two tricks that will make all the difference. If together with the clams (farmed or fished) you can add a handful of lupins, you will add an extra touch of flavour to this already delicious recipe.

How to make Paccheri alle vongole

  • 350g paccheri with lemon
  • 1.5kg of clams
  • Yellow tomatoes to taste
  • 1 garlic clove
  • White wine to taste
  • Extra virgin olive oil to taste
  • Fresh chilli pepper to taste
  • Parsley to taste
  • Salt to taste

How to make Paccheri and Clams Recipe

The first step is to clean the clams. They are placed in a fairly large container and covered with plenty of cold, lightly salted water, then left to soak for a couple of hours. This operation will remove the sand accumulated inside them. Once the clams have been purged, pass them under running water and then open them by placing them in a large saucepan over a high flame with 2 tablespoons of EVO oil and 1 clove of garlic, then deglaze with white wine.

Let them cool, remove the shells from most of the clams leaving some with the shells on to better present the dish. We keep some of the clam sauce from the clams, filtering it to remove excess impurities.

In a saucepan, drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil, a few pieces of fresh chilli pepper, basil and a few yellow tomatoes divided into four parts. We cook on a low heat with a lid until we obtain a sauce. In the meantime we boil plenty of salted water which will be used for cooking the paccheri.

When the water boils, we cook our paccheri al limone. Halfway through the cooking time, recover a few ladles of water from the pasta and add it to the previously prepared sauce. Drain the pasta al dente and place it in the pan together with the previously filtered clam water.

Stir fry everything to cook the paccheri, and one minute before the end of cooking add the clams and plenty of chopped parsley. Stir everything to mix the flavours well, then bring to the table.