Pasta con le Vongole

Even before I was connected with il Buco, my fiancé, Joe Rosato, and I used to make pasta con le vongole in our tiny New York apartment, using canned clams with clam juice and white wine. I loved it. Cooking with Joe was always a joy. The first time I had real pasta con le vongole using fresh clams was by the seaside in the Marche with Alberto. After a long day in the sun, starving, we strolled into a no-nonsense trattoria by the water. It was a revelation: the salinity of the tiny clams, called vongole veraci, the sturdy kick of the garlic, the emulsified olive oil holding the firm pasta to the clams. It’s been a staple whenever I entertain at my house out East and is one of my dad’s all-time favorites. Because the real vongole veraci don’t exist on this side of the Atlantic, I often substitute New Zealand cockles for clams; they’re just the right size, intensely briny with beautiful striated shells.

Serves 4

Sea salt to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus additional for finishing

2 garlic cloves, smashed

Peperoncino to taste

1 small bunch parsley, chopped

4 pounds cockles, cleaned and purged*

1 pound dried spaghetti

Lemon juice to taste

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.

2. In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add the garlic and sauté until golden but not burned. Add the crushed peperoncino to taste, half of the parsley, and the cockles. Cover the skillet and cook, shaking the pan every once in a while, until the cockles pop open, 10 to 15 minutes. Discard the garlic cloves after cooking.

3. Meanwhile, add the spaghetti to the boiling water and cook until al dente. Drain the pasta (reserving a small amount of the pasta water) and add to the skillet with the now-open cockles. Toss to coat. Only add the reserved pasta water if the cockles do not provide enough juice to the pan to coat the noodles. You may want to remove a number of the cockles from the shells to make eating more enjoyable. (Careful, they’re hot.) Finish with the remaining parsley, a drizzle of olive oil, and a squeeze of lemon juice.