Published: December 20, 2021 | Updated: October 6, 2025
Spaghetti alle Vongole aka Spaghetti and Clams is literally my favorite Italian dish of all time (besides pizza of course)! Most seafood lovers here in the US are fans of crab legs, shrimp, fish and maybe even scallops, but for some reason, clams are a bit of a mystery for many. If you often skip over clams, you’re missing out on some of the most flavorful seafood out there! They’re not the prettiest looking, but boy do they pack a strong punch and they are so easy to cook!
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If you plan to try this dish, yes you could cheat and buy clams in a can, but ewww why do that to yourself? Who knows what type of preservatives are in there?! Continue reading, as I walk you through step-by-step on how to make this easy, less than 30 minute meal.
Cleaning Your Clams
Before you begin, be sure to stop by your local market, pick up some fresh clams and try to keep them as cool as possible on the way home. Your local super market may even give you a tiny bag of ice to rest your clams on if you ask. If your clams become too hot, they could die during transport, so make sure they’re kept at a cool temperature on the way home.
There are 2 easy methods to clean your clams. The fastest way to clean them will be to scrub them with a brush, remove any silt or what appear to be hairs and add them to a bowl of cold salt water. Allow the clams to soak in cold salted water for around 20 minutes. Drain, rinse and repeat a second time. By now, your clams should have most of the sand inside their little mouths removed.
The second method takes a bit longer, but is a sure way to ensure your clams are cleaned thoroughly before cooking. Take a bowl of cold water, add 3 tbsp of flour and 3 tbsp of coarse sea salt, mix and add in your clams. Allow them to sit in this mixture for 2 hours. The clams will from time to time attempt to eat the flour by opening their mouths, which in turn will pull the sand out of their shells. After 2 hours, rinse and allow clams to sit in cold water for 20 more minutes. If the water is clear after 20 minutes, your clams are clean and ready for cooking!
Now that you know how to clean your clams, let’s hop into this recipe! Tonight for dinner, I did not have any spaghetti on hand, only linguini. This dish goes well with either pasta, but my personal preference is spaghetti. I feel that the flatness of the linguini pasta soaks up a lot of sauce, where as the spaghetti does not soak up the sauce as much. You have to substitute where you can, but overall my dish turned out fantastic! 🙂 Here’s my personal spin on Spaghetti alle Vongole:
Recipe:
Clam Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 Shallot, minced
- 4 cloves Fresh Garlic, minced
- 1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
- 1/4 cup Fresh Parsley, chopped
- 1 cup Dry White Wine
- 2 pounds Little Neck Clams, cleaned
- 1/2 pound Dry Spaghetti or Linguini
- 1/4 cup Preserved Pasta Water
Instructions
- Before cooking, be sure to properly clean your clams and ensure they are free of all sand or silt. To begin, bring a pot of water up to boil for your pasta. Next, grab a sauté pan to begin the clam sauce. I recommend preparing the sauce while the pasta is cooking to ensure the pasta will be ready to add to the sauce once it is al dente.
- To prepare clam sauce, melt 2 tbsp of butter and stir in 2 tbsp of olive oil. Next sauté shallots until they begin to sweat, then add minced garlic. Do not allow garlic to brown. Once garlic is fragrant, add 1 cup of dry white wine and red pepper flakes. Allow mixture to come to a simmer to allow alcohol to cook off. When ready, add fresh clams to the sauté pan, cover with a lid and allow the clams to simmer in the sauce for 5-7 minutes. At this point, your pasta should be boiling as well in lightly salted water. (NOTE: You do not need to heavily salt your pasta water this time since the clams have a natural salt taste to them as well)
- The mouths of the clams should begin to open during the simmering process. If they do not open after 5-7 minutes, there's a possibility they were dead before you started cooking. If so, do not eat these, simply discard.
- Remove clams from sauce and add al dente pasta to the sauté pan. If you need to stretch your sauce a bit, add a few tablespoons of pasta water as well. Toss pasta in clam sauce. Once pasta is fully covered in sauce, re-add clams to the pan as well and toss a few times more. You may even decide to shuck a few of your cooked clams for ease of eating just before serving. Top off your dish with freshly chopped parsley, serve immediately and enjoy!
The first time I was introduced to this dish was in Italy. It was sooooo good! I asked every chef / waiter how they prepared the vongole so I could make it at home myself! The traditional Italian way to make Spaghetti alle Vongole is with olive oil only and no shallots. However, who doesn’t love the richness of butter!? 🙂 If you want to make this dish the authentic way, simply add 1/4 cup olive oil to start, no butter and do not add shallots. With these two changes, you’ll be super autentica! Optionally, you could grate some fresh cheese on top, but myself along with most Italians believe the cheese can actually overpower the dish. Well I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
As an Italian I can actually pay you my compliments, exceptional your reproduction of a recipe that every Italian family cooks for Christmas Eve dinner!
Thank you so much! <3
So I have never made this before, but now I know I must.. Looks delish!
This looks incredible! Sharing this with my fam so we can make it for the holidays!
It looks delicious and easy. A new recipe that needs to bring to our dining table. Yum!
I am hooked on this recipe. It looks so delish and easy to make. I am definitely trying this
Its great to discover new recipes this holiday. This will make our holidays more festive
Oh yum! Linguine with clams is one of my all time favorite dishes!
Perfect recipe for Christmas Eve. Will definitely be making this.
This looks delicious! I’m a big fan of clams and often have them at restaurants. But I’ve never prepared them at home since the task of cleaning them up properly and preparing them was always daunting to me. Im always nervous about messing it up. You explained the whole process well so I might just feel confident enough to get them next time I go to the supermarket.
Thank you for sharing the recipe. This looks extremely delicious.
I’ve never cooked seafood at home, but this recipe looks so easy to make. Thanks for sharing!
This looks amazing. We try and do a seafood dish for Christmas so I just might have to try it this year!