Chirla Huelva

When the weather is good there’s nothing better than a light seafood pasta and as I was able to pick up baby clams I decided that me and roof terrace plus my chilled Galician wine with a little bit of Sweetback on my iPod deserved Linguinie Vongole.  It is easy to knock together and this is my favourite version. This serves one hungry person. And I am hungry.

Ingredients:

Clams – I ordered dos puñados but being a girl the server informed me that she had small hands so I settled on three handfuls.

100g dried linguinie (or spaghetti)

Extra virgin olive oil

A fat clove of garlic, finely chopped

Red chill, as much or little as you wish, finely sliced

A small knob of fresh ginger, finely chopped

A little tomato purée

Splash dry white wine

Handful flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Lemon – small amount zested, a large squeeze of juice and a quarter for decoration

Method:

Rinse and clean the clams

Cook pasta as per instructions on the packet, less 2 minutes

Soften the garlic, ginger and chilli in the oil in a pan then add the tomato purée

Drain the clams and add to the pan together with the wine – turn up the heat. Shake and cover and cook until most have opened. Discard any unopened ones

Drain and add the pasta, toss well and leave for one minute,

then stir through the chopped parsley, lemon zest and juice, season to taste and serve immediately

My clams were from Andalucía’s Gulf of Cadiz coast. Cheap and very, very delicious.