When I first read that we had white clam sauce on the menu for this week’s Cooking Italy, I was seriously doubting that I would be making this. You have to know that I am really not a fan of shelled seafood… I just think they look scary.. But then again; I do love a good coquille and I always think you have to try something first before you can say that you don’t like it. And clams where something I had never tried before, so…. I went in search of clams. Well first I went in search of how clams are called in Dutch… and quite frankly; I still don’t know! So if anyone knows what a clam is called in Dutch please let me know.

I ended up buying ‘kokkels’ which I think is possible translated as cockles? But they look sort of similar to clams, so I figured those would do. It’s not as if you can actually buy those in the shop here. I had to call our one and only fishshop and ask them to bring it. Ofcourse that meant I had to purchase an entire kilo of them, which is really a waste. The good side was that I could practice on how to prepare them as I was – and still am – quite clueless.

Cockles

The recipe stated that you should put them in a pan on high heat and once opened remove them immediately and the juice would then be used to prepare the rest of the dish. Ok, that sounded fairly simple but what happened when I put the little beasties in the pan is that they did drip some fluids but that evaporated as soon as it hit the really hot pan! So no juice whatsoever was left after the first testrun.

The second try I figured I should ad some oliveoil into the pan before tossing them in and that worked better, although it was really a limited amount of juice. Now I didn’t toss in 20 pieces at one time, so that could have been the issue. Who knows… The recipe also states that you should pour the juices through a paper kitchen towel to get rid of any remaining sand or other stuff that shouldn’t be there, but really… that would have meant that it would all be taken in by the paper! It was that little…

I did feel kind of sorry for the little creatures… being tossed like that into a hot pan and basically being boiled alive..  A bit cruel I thought but ok, they were gonna die anyway at some point.

Apart from that whole cockle/clam adventure it was pretty straightforward, so no surprises there.

Now as far as the taste goes; I was really not impressed. Keep in mind that I am not a fan of shelled fish. There is something about them that just doesn’t really work for me.. Although I have to confess that I am probably just being squamish… I mean…. look at that thing in the shell; that – to me – does not resemble something appetizing! Ofcourse, I am glad that I tried it and I will definitely not be making this again…lol… I also thought that there was not enough juice to follow the recipe. So that part to me was a bit weird. I love pasta and most of the flavors that go with it, but this was a no go for me.

But if you are a fan of shelled fish then this just might be perfect for you! Here is the recipe:

White Clam Sauce (serves 4)

18 live clams in their shells

5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves of garlic

1,5 tablespoon of chopped parsley

1 red hot chili pepper

1 plum tomato, diced

100 ml dry white wine

450 gr of pasta

6 fresh basil leaves

To clean the clams put them into fresh water with salt for about 20 minutes. They will open up slightly and expel the sand that they have inside. Scrub the clams to clean them of any debris and repeat the process until no more stuff is coming of them.

Once cleaned keep them in a bowl in the fridge, uncovered so they can breath… (this is really weird as they make little popping noises while in the fridge…)

Heat up the clams to open them in hot pan. I found that you need to add either oil or a little bit of water, as otherwise the fluids coming from the clams will immediately evaporate. Make sure to cover the pan as it will jump around a bit.

As soon as the clams open up take them out of the pan using a slotted spoon, take the clams out of their shells and cut into 2 or 3 pieces unless they are very small. Put them in a small bowl and cover with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, cover the bowl tightly with cling film and set aside for later but don’t put in the fridge.

Choose a skillet or saute pan that is large enough to contain the pasta later. Put in 3 tbsp of olive oil and the sliced garlic, and turn the heat up. Don’t let the garlic become coloured, then add the parsley and the chili pepper. Stir once or twice and add the diced tomato. Cook the tomato for 1-2 minutes, stirring it from time to time, then add the wine. Simmer the wine for about 20-30 seconds, letting it reduce, then turn the heat off

Cook the pasta in salted water until it is barely al dente. You don’t want the pasta to be too well done, although I did find that the juice of the clams wasn’t sufficient to cook the pasta till further so my pasta was slightly underdone.

Drain the pasta and add immediately to the skillet or saute pan, turning the heat up high and adding the clam juice. Cook, tossing and turning the pasta, until all the juice has evaporated.

Add the cut up clams with all the oil in the bowl and the torn basil leaves, toss in the pan 2-3 times, then transfer to a hot plate and serve at once.

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Spaghetti with crushed tomatoes

I was asked by the lovely Olga from Mango and Tomato to write a guestblog for the time when she will be on holiday…. Ofcourse with a blog called Mango and tomato, it would be fun to choose a dish with either mango or tomato (or both) in them. Now I love both those ingredients so not such a very hard task. Plus – since I am on a diet – tomatoes are a perfect choice as there is hardly any calories in them…

I had recently bought the new book from Donna Hay, “No time to cook” and while I did have time to cook, I figured today would be the perfect day to try one of the recipes and see if it really would be as quick as no cooking. The title is actually a little misleading; if you’re thinking you’re buying a book with all sort of recipes that require no cooking at all, then you should be buying something else. It does require cooking but it’s just very quick. What I also like about the book is that most of the recipes are for two. Saves me all those calculations I always have to do…

Ingredients

Tom is gonna be home late today, so I can easily make this twice; it is that fast. With spaghetti I prefer to make it fresh since that simply tastes the best.

Now one little word of warning; the recipe wants you to bruise all the cherry tomatoes. Removing the pits and some of the inside juices apparently is meant to enhance the flavour. So I faithfuly set about doing just that; now tomatoes have a funny way of behaving when you pinch a really ripe tomato! The proof is all over my kitchen! lol… So be careful when you want to make this, as even being careful doesn’t prevent the odd flying tomato- sauce!

The only thing that needed boiling for this recipe was the spaghetti, but that is not really work at all. Except for the garlic, no other cutting is required and it’s literally done and on the table in about 10-15 minutes. Really really simple and quite tasty. I would add probably a little bit of maybe smoked chicken in there for next time, or little bits of ham. Just to spice it up a little bit.

I like my pasta to be simple, with really not a lot of ingredients and this was a perfect example of a good pasta with minimum effort.

Spaghetti with bruised tomatoes (from Donna Hay; No time to cook) serves 2

200 gr spaghetti

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 cloves of garlic

fresh basil

500 gr cherry tomatoes (I used honey cherry tomatoes, which are lovely and sweet)

seasalt

30 gr of butter

Cook the spaghetti in about 10-12 minutes. Chop up the garlic and squish the tomatoes so part of the juice and the seeds are removed. In a pan heat the butter (or use olive oil if you prefer) and add the garlic, balsamic and cherry tomatoes and heat them through untill the tomatoes become warm and a little bit soft. Once the spaghetti is cooked, add to the tomato-balsamic mixture and add fresh basil. Serve.

I added parmezan as no pasta is complete without a little sprinkle of cheese (or so I think) but add whatever you like to this, as it’s a perfect base recipe.

Enjoy!

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Garlic spaghetti with bacon strips and basil

We are having a ridiculously busy week this week and that also means that we will not be eating together at all…

Yesterday evening I had a preweddingshoot with a weddingcouple, tonight Tom has a party for the announcement of the best company of the year, tomorrow he has to do something for the foundation that he and his friends started (it’s a great initiative by the way; they are all three fisherman and the goal is to get children in need (handicapped, either mentally or physically) to have a great day by the water. So the last couple of months they have been really busy getting sponsors, volunteers and eventually get children that want to participate. The first event is scheduled to be on April 25th. “Unfortunately” I will be in Italy with a friend at that time, so I cannot take the photos, but I am sure the event will be successful! If you want more information on it, there is a link on my blogroll. The foundation is called “Het Peuterfonds” and the site is in Dutch (just thought I’d warn you)

Where was I? O yes, thursday Tom has a dinner with former collegues and last but not least on friday I have a wedding to shoot which will last till about 10 PM.

Usually I am quite fine with Tom being away once or twice during any week, as that gives me the opportunity to eat the things I know he doesn’t like (he hates blue cheese and cheese in general!!) but having to eat alone is not so much fun if it lasts the entire week.

I am busy enough so the week will fly by anyway; big photoshoot for a new customer which started today and will last till thursday. I’m quite excited about it  as it involves shooting food and lifestyle! My favorite subjects! I will probably post a few of the results here at some point.

Anyway, I woke up this morning thinking I would be making something cheesy tonight, but then I am also trying to lose weight and cheese and weightloss don’t really mix that well. Not the cheese I was thinking about anyway, so instead I decided to go for a healthy pasta dish. Quick and easy and totally delicious and it still featured a little bit of cheese on top so it would have to do.

The recipe is almost to simple to write down, but here it is anyway:

Garlic spaghetti (serves 4)

200 gr spaghetti (uncooked)

175 gr bacon strips

7 gloves of garlic (yes, it is called garlic spaghetti after all)

sambal

10 spring onions

chicken stock (either from a cube or selfmade)

Cut the onions and garlic into small pieces. Cook the spaghetti in some chicken stock. In the meantime put a frying pan on the stove and put bacon strips, onions, garlic and a bit of sambal in the pan. Once done mix with the spaghetti et voila… nice and light meal! Ofcourse you can spice this up with whatever you like, but I loved the taste. I didn’t use spring onions as for some reason the supermarket was completely out of them!

Garlic spaghetti and salad

I would suggest having some sort of fresh salad with this pasta dish to get your greens in as well! It’s very quick as there is not a lot of ingredients involved, but filling and tasty.

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