It’s a fuss-free two-pot recipe, one for the spaghetti and one for everything else. Or one if you are feeling lazy and have time to burn. Fry the aromatics and vegetables, add clams and white wine, cover and let simmer, add cooked spaghetti, toss with coriander and you’re pretty much set.
It was perfect, the kind of dish you don’t need to pay too much attention to so you can focus on the conversation as you get the food ready. You hang around the kitchen, a glass of fruity and crisp white wine in hand, ready to chit-chat or complain about work.
We made it on nights we had no plans and nights nursing heartbreaks. It was our go-to dish for dinner parties we organized with other friends at a moment’s notice and other times simply because we craved easy and satisfying pasta.
When we were out of wine, we substituted with beer. The only two constants in this versatile recipe are long pasta and fresh clams, everything else we could improvise.
More than just an excuse for a home-cooked dinner for two girls living so far from home, we built our friendship on pasta bubbling on the stove as we chopped vegetables, clams clattering in the colander.
In good times and bad, there’s nothing an evening of bottomless glasses of wine, conversations and spicy clam pasta that wouldn’t cure and uplift.
We sat cross-legged on the floor, almost ritualistic, with a big pot of freshly-cooked spicy clam pasta between us on the coffee table, digging into servings after servings of our night’s shared labor.