I’m sure when you think at pasta you will think at Italy, the home country of every type and format of pasta!
In Italy we have so many different types of pasta and all different from region to region and here I want to present you a very traditional dish from my origin region, Campania, specifically of the Neapolitan tradition: Spaghetti alle vongole (spaghetti pasta with clams).
The receipt of this traditional dish is very easy and fast to make, everyone has his own version and there are several small variants depending on the combination of the ingredients and some differences, there is also a red version (with tomato sauce) but the traditional Neapolitan one is without!
My ingredients for 4 persons:
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350g of spaghetti (number 8)
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2 or 3 full pieces of dry garlic
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1kg of fresh clams
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extravergine olive oil
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gross salt
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fresh parsley
The receipt starts taking care about the clams. Before going into the details we have some notes to mention here, first of all they must be fresh. We never cook frozen clams 
! It is very typical to find baskets of 1kg or 1/2 kg according the required quantity. Also the type is very important and before any Italian is complaining about the title of the receipt / post, the ones I use are not vongole but lupini to be precise. Vongole veraci are bit bigger, more soft and with a different sweet taste, they are more expensive and more valuable, however this smaller size called lupini (the shell is also different because more tending to the shades of gray) are releasing bit more taste in the pan and that’s why many people do prefer them for the pasta. Sometimes they are also mixed together for a mixed taste.
Since we are talking about having fresh clams the next point is when to buy them, they don’t live too much especially when it is hot and it is totally discouraging to eat them if they are not alive as they are very dangerous! I normally buy them the evening before for the next day and there is a method to keep them alive as much as possible: take a tea towel, make it totally wet of cold water and round it around the closed baskets, very tight (this is important!). Put this small box into an open container without cover and put it in the fridge. The cold towel will make sure the clams don’t suffer hot needing water refresh and the tight closure makes sure they don’t release too much water because they will die as soon as they loose all the water inside and they can’t refresh it.
The day after we need to start the cleaning procedure to make sure they release the sands inside otherwise this will be released inside our pasta. The procedure is very simple, fill a container full of cold water, put some gross salt and leave the clams inside (open from the box) for a couple of hours before cooking. Replace the water 1 or 2 times in between, in this way they will clean the water inside by releasing and refreshing with clean salty water.
Next step, start putting a pot with water for the pasta, please wait the water is boiling before start cooking the clams because they will cook in a very short time and you need to have pasta ready by that time otherwise they will dry up! At the water boiling point remember to put gross salt in the water (we don’t put salt on a already cooked pasta 
), and take a high pot where spaghetti can cook comfortable.
When water is boiling let’s throw spaghetti inside and leave them cooking mixing them to avoid they will stick to the pot. Check the pasta cooking time as at around mid time we need to start with clams.
A note about the pasta, this dish can be made with linguine as well according preferences (another type of pasta very similar to spaghetti), they are bit more thick and not so round as the spaghetti. Other versions are also using vermicelli but that’s a variant more typical from the norther regions of Italy. Whatever type of pasta you choice, the very important point is the quality of it! At home I always use pasta made from Gragnano which is one of the most famous pasta industry city in Italy, at the south of Naples.
Pick a pan, put the extravergine olive oil and the cleaned pieces of dry garlic and turn on fire. Wait the oil and garlic is warm enough (you don’t have to reach the frying point for the oil) and then throw inside the clams taken out of the water, mix it and leave them cooking for a couple of minutes at high fire covered with a pan lid, remember to mix the pan sometimes smashing the clams while keeping the lid on it.
If you like a little bit of spicy the original receipt has also some fresh red small cutted pepper 
here together with the garlic and oil, I don’t use them because I don’t like spicy taste, unfortunately.
Check the clams and when they are all open (it will take 5 or 7 minutes) they are ready and you need to drain the pasta, that’s why it is so important the timing between those, here we need to be at half pasta cooking time because it needs to be just before al dente and finishing to cook inside the clams pan.
When draining the pasta keep away a glass of hot water to throw inside the clams pan to make sure the pasta won’t dry up too much. Make sure to use a glass (or any other container) which can hold really hot water.
Now we can prepare the last step, the dressing while keeping smashing the pan to make sure pasta will mix with the clams and their released tasty water, plus of course the drained glass of pasta water.
Pick up enough fresh parsley, wash it if needed and fine cut it with a knife. Throw it in the pan and finish smashing everything. Couple of minutes more and the dish is ready to be served, delicious!
Do you like clams? Have you ever tried such dish, perhaps in Italy?
I’m tagging here @AdrianLunsong for the #LocalGuidesKitchen new series! I hope you do like the receipt 
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I’m going to save this recipe and try it out when I manage to find the right kind of clams. Do you pair this dish with any wine?
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, a perfect dish need the right wine. How not to agree with the ones suggested by Luigi.
!
luego te cuento como salió el plato.
opinan que ellos son los que primero, hace un milenio, prepararon fideos tallarines 
.
, Farid
