Spaghetti Alle Vongole (Pasta With Clams)

The briny juices of fresh clams create the sauce for spaghetti alle vongole, a classic Italian seafood pasta dish from Naples. The first written recipe is generally credited to 19th-century Neapolitan aristocrat Ippolito Cavalcanti, though many historians believe cooks used Adriatic seafood in broths and soups as early as the 17th and 18th centuries.

For your vongole, use the freshest small clams you can find—or throw in some mussels to make a similar Italian seafood dish, pasta alle vongole e cozze. Don’t skip or skimp on the chopped parsley: It gives the clam sauce flavor and texture. The fresher the ingredients, the better the vongole, so save the canned clams and dried parsley for another day. Because clams’ salinity varies based on provenance and variety, use a light hand when salting the pasta water, and trust that the clam juice will take care of the rest. Use any dry white wine you like to drink—something Italian, like Pinot Grigio or Verdejo, is a safe bet, but a Gruner, Riesling, or any high-acid wine will do just fine. Fresh out of spaghetti? Swap in linguine to make linguine alle vongole or bucatini for something hardier.