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32
L'Italo-Americano
THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2019
LA BUONA TAVOLA
RECIPES COOKING TIPS SEASONAL DISHES
This dish is enriched by the addition of fresh parsley, used often for pasta dishes with clams © Ian Walker | Dreamstime.com
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Buon appetito,
Michele
Sardinian Fregola with clams
Ingredients:
•4 dozen littleneck clams,
scrubbed
and rinsed
•1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
•Healthy pinch of saffron
•3 garlic cloves, minced
•1 cup dry white wine
•About
2 cups diced tomato
(either canned or fresh plum toma-
toes)
•Pinch
of hot red pepper flakes
•2 tablespoons coarsely
chopped
flat-leaf parsley
•Kosher salt
•Freshly ground black pepper
•2 cups clam stock (other stock
may be substituted)
•2
cups water plus additional
if needed
•2 cups fregola
Directions:
Rinse and scrub the
clams. Discard any with broken
shells. Purge the clams of sand by
covering them in a large bowl with
salt water. (You want the taste of
the water to be similar to seawa-
ter.) Allow the clams to purge for
about an hour. Drain them, being
careful not to pour the grit back
over them.
In a large wide skillet, heat a
few tablespoons of olive oil and
add in the clams. Cover tightly
and shake the pan until the clams
start to open. As they open, re-
move them to a bowl. Discard
any that have not opened. Turn off
the heat. Strain the liquid pro-
duced, add the saffron to it and al-
low to bloom while you prepare
the rest of the dish. Set the clams
and the liquid aside.
Heat the remaining olive oil in
a large heavy pot. Add the minced
garlic and cook over moderately
high heat for approximately 30
seconds. Add the white wine and
simmer for few minutes. Add in
the diced tomatoes and a pinch of
hot pepper flakes. Bring to a boil
then reduce to a simmer and cook
until the tomatoes soften (abut 10
minutes). Add in the reserved
clam juice and parsley and sim-
mer for approximately 5 minutes.
Taste the broth and adjust season-
ings (as clams are usually very
salty, I find I typically only need
to add pepper).
Add in the stock and 2 cups of
water. Bring to a boil and add the
fregola. Cover and reduce heat to
a simmer. Cook, stirring occasion-
ally, until the fregola is tender to
the bite (about 15 minutes). If the
mixture becomes too thick, add
more water to thin.
Put the clams back into the
wonderful broth to reheat for a
few minutes and then you are
ready to serve! Sprinkle with ad-
ditional chopped parsley and serve
immediately with freshly warmed
toasted bread.
Fregola is a typical pasta from Sardinia, which is slighlty toasted © Oxana Denezhkina | Dreamstime.com
