Home sweet home!

After spending some time in the UK amidst fresh weather and English food I must say I deeply missed our Mediterranean diet! Not that we always ate roast beef and chips (since we visited an Italian restaurant more than once) but it still feels soothing to gurgle down some pasta with fresh cherry tomatoes or nibble on some crunchy Maltese bread! What I liked best about the English food are their desserts and the Sunday roasts served at the pub! Poached eggs were also my favourite! Hence, on our return I found myself on the way to the fishmonger and bought some fresh meaty vongole which helped me compose a finger licking plate of spaghetti… have a look!

Ingredients for 4 persons:

• 400g squid-ink pasta, ideally spaghetti
• 1kg fresh vongole
• 2 thin courgettes
• 15 cherry tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves
• basil leaves
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• white wine

Clean the vongole by leaving them in salted water for about 2 hours until the sand is washed away. In the meantime, slice the courgettes into circles and crush the garlic. Tear the basil leaves with your fingers and slice the cherry tomatoes into halves. Bring the pasta water to boil, then add the pasta and cook until al dente. Hence, take a large saucepan, pour some olive oil and add the garlic. Fry for few minutes, add the courgettes, keep cooking until these soften. Then add the cherry tomatoes and the basil leaves. Remove from the pan and keep aside. In the same saucepan, put in the vongole, add a glass of white wine and leave on high heat until all the shells open. When done, filter the water which emanated from the vongole and keep aside. Add the tomato and courgette mixture to the vongole, mix in the cooked spaghetti (very al dente), add some vongole water and keep stirring until the sauce is blended with the pasta. Pour some olive oil and serve.

[caption id=”attachment_513" align=”aligncenter” width=”300" caption=”Squid-ink pasta with fresh clams”]

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