Delicious Fresh Seafood
Vongole Verace is hunting in Naples, it is quite expensive. However, you can find Lupini, which is a little smaller than Verace, at a more affordable price. They are already sold alive in sea water at the fisherman. The fisherman puts the sand mussels in a bag in sea water and gives you. It is important to buy this type of seafood on the same day and cook it fresh. It is surprising that clams do not have much of a place in Turkish cuisine despite being surrounded by seas. Sand mussels contain very useful minerals. It is being exported from Turkey but is not consumed much in the domestic market. However, there is much more private and aromatic taste of the mussels we had in Turkey. Recently, upscale restaurants in the fishing in Turkey, begun to be popular in order to find fresh clams and wish to enter the Turkish kitchen. Here is the recipe for spaghetti with clams from Naples:
MATERIALS (for 4 people)
370 g spaghetti
1 kg of clams
2 cloves of garlic
300 g cherry tomatoes (optional)
1 red hot pepper peperoncino (optional)
6-7 spoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 bunch of chopped parsley
Salt
HOW TO DO?
We wash the seashells we bought from the fishermen on the beach in the morning very well with cold water. When I buy fresh from the fisherman
Although there is usually no waste, remove any broken or open shell. While washing, we make sure that there is no sand left. Rinse. However, if they have not been cleaned before, soak the shells in a bowl with 1 spoon of salt for 2 hours in cold water. Then rinse well. There is no need for me to keep the fresh shells I bought from the fisherman in salt water.
On the other hand, we put water in a pot and start the process of boiling the pasta water.
While the water of the pasta is boiling in the pot, we take it into a large pan. We put some olive oil on the pan. We add 2 cloves of garlic.
We do not cut the garlic. If you want it to be bitter, you can slice fresh hot pepper and put it in the pan. While the garlic is cooked in light oil (without burning it), we put the clams, if you wish, we divide the tiny cherry tomatoes in two and add them to the pan. Optionally, you can also divide the cherry tomatoes in half and put them in the pan. In the traditional recipe made by Neapolitans, it can be plain without tomatoes.
Then we cover the pan and leave it to cook. We want its own juice and aroma to come out without adding water. There are recipes with white wine from time to time, but we want to stick to the traditional recipe and cook it in its own juice. It is already being cooked immediately and the shells are opened.
The shells are opened in about 10 minutes. If you wish, you can sprinkle a little salt. Usually the sauce is not dry. If it is dry, you can add a small amount of the water you boiled in the pasta. However, when combined with olive oil, mussels, cherry tomatoes and garlic, its unique aroma comes out. There is no need to add water.
The trick for Italians to cook pasta is that you first boil the water. Then you put the salt in the water. Then you start boiling the pasta. There is a cooking time on the package according to the types of pasta. Penne, on the other hand, is usually 10 minutes. You can even get it off the fire before if you want it to be al dente (less boiled). Usually 8 minutes is enough for spaghetti. You are filtering the pasta.
And we put the spaghetti in the large pan with cooked sea shells and mix it. We add chopped parsley on it.
Spaghetti alle Vongole is ready. If there are unopened clams, do not try to open them and do not eat them. Consume those opened when cooked. While eating the spaghetti, you can take the meat of the mussel from the shells opened with the help of a fork and consume it.
