Pasta Vongole

This recipe for Pasta Vongole comes from www.UKshallot.com.

There is nothing quite like shallots for adding a uniquely delicate, sweet, piquant flavour. With their superior taste, shallots transform everyday meals into something extra special.

Shallots form a vital part of the chef's mise en place and are at the heart of many classic dishes. Professional chefs and passionate home cooks know that shallots are a crucial ingredient in stews and casseroles but they are also fantastic in stir fries, breads, sauces, tarts, soups, salads and curries.

Our traditional shallot growing areas cover 150 hectares (370 acres) of light, sandy soils in eastern England: principally, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Bedfordshire. The shallot growing year starts at the end of February in the UK, as soon as the soil starts to warm up and the shallots are harvested throughout July and August.

Because shallots are a specialist crop, they require a great deal of care from sowing the seeds or plants to harvesting the bulbs and storing them.

Ingredients for Pasta Vongole

800g fresh clams, discard any opened ones
12 whole shallots, finely chopped
75g butter
2 cloves of garlic peeled and chopped
2 glasses of white wine
400g cooked spaghetti or linguine
100g double cream
50g flat leaf parsley

How to make Pasta Vongole

• Thoroughly wash the clams.

• Chop the shallots into a fine dice and cook in the butter until soft.

• When soft add the chopped garlic and 1 glass of the white wine and reduce slightly. (This can be done up to two or three days in advance, cooled and kept in a sealed jar.)

• Place a large pan on the gas and allow this to get hot, adding the clams and the remaining white wine.

• When they all start to open add the cooked spaghetti / linguine to the same pan.

• Then add the double cream and the cooked shallot mixture.

• After two or three minutes, when it is all warmed through, check the seasoning and adjust if necessary and add some of the chopped parsley.

• Serve in hot bowls.

• Finish with the rest of the chopped parsley.

Serves 4

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