COCKLES WITH PARSLEY, CHILLI & SHERRY

I like white-shelled cockles, as I find that the dark ones tend to be very sandy (I don’t mind the odd bit of sand – it reminds you what you’re eating – but you don’t want the beach in your mouth). The best cockles I’ve ever tried were from the Isle of Wight: they were so juicy and full of flavour. This is the quickest, tastiest thing: you don’t need any stock, as the wine and the juice from the cockles make the sauce.

FOR 4

1kg cockles

1 tablespoon fine sea salt, to clean the cockles (see method)

60ml extra virgin olive oil

6 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

4 shallots, finely diced

1 bay leaf

2 fresh red chillies, thinly sliced

150ml sherry

1 bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To clean the cockles, put them into a bowl of cold water with the salt and leave for a couple of hours. Move them around gently every 10 minutes, rinsing them and changing the water frequently. The salt water makes them expel any sand.

Put the olive oil and garlic into a pan on a medium heat, then add the shallots and bay leaf. Cook gently for a minute, then add the chillies, cleaned cockles and sherry. The sherry will hiss – immediately put the lid on and turn up the heat slightly. You’ll start to hear the clams pop open. When they have all opened, add the parsley leaves, then taste and add pepper and maybe salt.

Spoon into bowls and serve with some nice bread, for mopping up the sauce.