Italian Recipe for Pasta with Clams and Zucchini

Pasta “all’amalfitana” in found throughout the Amalfi Coast and the Campagna region, and usually means pasta with some type of seafood such as clams, mussels, or prawns. Often it uses local types of pasta such as scialatielli, a noodle that resembles a shorter tagliatelle pasta.  Because scialatielli can be hard to find, here we propose the recipe with spaghetti. Light and simple, yet perfectly scrumptious, it’s the perfect summer pasta dish!

Try our Mediterranean Cooking Experience on the Amalfi Coast.

Pasta alle Vongole e Zucchine (Pasta with Clams and Zucchini)

Serves: 4
Prep time: 60 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Cook method: Sauté, Boil

Ingredients:

• 360 grams of pasta (preferably spaghetti, tagliatelle, or scialatielli)
• 2 zucchini
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 kg of clams
• white wine
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• parsley

Instructions:

1. Put the clams in a bowl with water and salt for 1 hour.

2. Peel the zucchini, thinly slice or dice. (If they are baby zucchini with thin skins, you can leave the skins on.)

3. Sauté a clove of garlic in a pan with a little oil, drain the clams and put them in the pan, covering with a lid, and cook until they open. Add the white wine and the chopped parsley.

4. Shell half of the clams, reserving the liquid from them for later, and leave half in their shells.

5. Then in the same pan, sauté a clove of garlic with a little oil, and when it becomes golden add the zucchini. After a few minutes, add the shelled clams and the reserved cooking liquid.

6. In the meantime, cook the pasta in salted water until very “al dente,” drain it, then add it to the pan with the zucchini and clams. Toss the pasta for a minute or two to combine the flavors.

7. Serve the pasta with a sprinkling of pepper and chopped parsley, and garnish with the clams still in their shells.

Buon appetito!

Looking to take a cooking vacation to Italy? You can cook on the Amalfi Coast during one of our favorite culinary vacations:

• Mediterranean Cooking Experience
• Culinary Experience on the Amalfi Coast
• Authentic Amalfi Cuisine at Villa Romana
• Don Alfonso

Looking for more great seafood and pasta recipes? Try our recipe for Sicilian Bucatini con sarde or Spaghetti cozze e vongole (Spaghetti with mussels and clams).

By Peg Kern

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