Translated automatically by AI from the Italian original.
PALERMO / TERRA & GUSTO – Some dishes need no long preparation or tricks to win at the table: authentic Mediterranean ingredients are enough. For our daily dish feature, we suggest a combination of durable wheat pasta with the intense flavour of the sea: spaghetti with clams and tuna bottarga.
A great classic of seafood cooking that takes less than twenty minutes and reaches its peak with a fine local wine pairing: the Sicilian white wine Odo Augelli, whose freshness and sapidity balance the briny notes of the dish.
Ingredients for 4 people
- Durum wheat spaghetti: 360 g
- Clams: 1 kg (already purged)
- Sicilian tuna bottarga: 40 g (to be grated at the time)
- Garlic: 2 cloves
- Sicilian extra virgin olive oil: as needed
- Fresh parsley: 1 bunch
- Chilli: optional
- Dry white wine: half a glass for deglazing
Step-by-step preparation
- Opening the clams: In a large pan, gently sauté the garlic cloves in their skins with a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil (and a pinch of chilli, if desired). Add the well-rinsed clams, deglaze with the white wine and cover with a lid over a high flame for a few minutes, until the shells open. Turn off the heat, strain the cooking liquid and set the molluscs aside.
- Cooking and finishing: Cook the spaghetti in plenty of lightly salted water (bearing in mind the natural saltiness of the clam stock and the bottarga) and drain them very al dente directly into the pan with the strained clam water. Finish cooking by tossing the pasta for a couple of minutes so that it releases starch and forms a creamy coating.
- Plating: Off the heat, add the clams (some shelled, some in the shell), the finely chopped fresh parsley and a drizzle of raw oil. Plate and finish with a generous grating of tuna bottarga.
The glass pairing: Odo Augelli
To complete the culinary experience is the encounter with the Sicilian white wine Odo Augelli, served chilled at around 10–12 °C. Its citrus and floral notes and the pronounced minerality typical of the island’s terroirs cleanse the palate of the bottarga’s aromatic persistence and harmoniously support the sea sweetness of the clams, turning a simple everyday dish into a true journey of taste.
