Pasta vongole e pistacchi (Pasta with Clams and Pistachios)

Here’s an intriguing twist on a classic dish I heard about from an Italian friend who’s spending the summer at the seaside in her native Calabria: pasta vongole e pistacchi or Pasta with Clams and Pistachios.

You make this dish basically just like the original pasta alle vongole, but you enrich the sauce with a dollop of crema di pistachio (pistachio butter) and then top the pasta with chopped pistachios. It’s a lovely combination of flavors and textures. The nuttiness and mild sweetness of the pistachios compliment the brininess of the clams nicely. And the pistachio butter lends a beguiling creaminess to the sauce, while the topping adds a little crunch. And if you ask me, it’s easy on the eyes as well.

Like the original recipe, pasta vongole e pistacchi is the kind of dish you can whip up in minutes, just the time it takes to bring a pot of water to a boil and then cook your pasta. So if like me you have an adventurous palate, it’s definitely worth a try. And who knows? It may even become part of your regular rotation.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 500g (1 lb.) spaghetti or linguine
• salt

For the sauce:

• 1.5 kg (3 lbs) clams (about 10-12 clams per serving)
• white wine
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and slightly crushed
• olive oil
• 2-3 Tbs unsweetened crema di pistacchio (see Notes)
• a few sprigs of fresh parsley, trimmed of their stems and minced

For the topping:

• 60g (1/2 cup) pistachios, roughly chopped
• Another sprig of fresh parsley, trimmed of its stem and minced

Directions

Purge the clams

Purge your clams of any sediment by soaking them in well salted water for at least an hour (see Notes below for details).

Start cooking the pasta

Bring a large pot of well salted water to a rolling boil.

Add the pasta and cook until almost al dente.

Prepare the sauce

While the pasta water is coming to a boil, in a saucier or wok, gently sauté the garlic cloves and the parsley stems in a generous amount of olive oil.

When the garlic is just beginning to turn color, raise the heat and add the clams and a splash of white wine. Cover and let the clams steam, shaking the pan from time to time.

After a minute or two, uncover the pan and check on the clams to see if they’ve opened. If they have, using a slotted spoon or skimmer, transfer the clams to a large bowl. Once the clams are cool enough to handle, shell most of the them, leaving some unshelled for garnish.

There should be ample clam juices in the pan. Strain them if you see any sediment. Otherwise, remove the garlic and parsley stems, and add the crema di pistacchio and give it a stir to dissolve. Then turn off the heat until the next step.

Finishing the dish

Once the pasta is almost but not quite al dente, transfer it to the pan with the clam and pistachio sauce. Simmer over gentle heat, mixing constantly, until the pasta is fully cooked and has absorbed most but not quite all of the sauce. Add back the shelled clams and minced parsley and give it all a good mix.

Transfer the dressed pasta to a serving dish. Garnish with the unshelled clams and sprinkle everything with the chopped pistachios and the rest of the minced parsley.

Serve immediately.

Notes on pasta vongole e pistacchi

As mentioned at the top, this is a dish a reasonably experienced cook can make very quickly, basically in the time it takes for the pasta water to come to a boil and then for the pasta to cook. But if you’re a less experienced cook or making pasta vongole e pistacchi for the first time, you may want to invert the order in the recipe above and hold off cooking the pasta until you’ve finished making the sauce, just in case you need more time.

Choosing and purging the clams

Try to find the smallest clams possible. In Italy, the clams known as vongole veraci are the most common variety for this dish, although the tiny clams called lupini (not to be confused with lupini beans) are especially prized for their tiny size and sweetness. 

Elsewhere, I find Manila or short neck clams are excellent; both have the small, thin shells and sweet flesh that you are looking for. In a pinch, littlenecks—although a bit too large—will also do. Some very large, hard-shelled clams, however, like the Quahog, are simply too tough to be palatable in this dish. 

Giving measurements for the clams here is a bit tricky since their shell accounts for more than 80% of their weight. Clams with thicker shells weigh more but may contain a similar amount of meat. The pasta to clam ratio given here of 1:3 is for smaller clams, but not quite as small as those you’d actually find in Italy. Put another way, I’d aim for about 10-12 clams per serving.

To purge or not to purge

The only real bother to this making pasta vongole e pistacchi, if you want to call it that, is purging the clams of their sand. It’s an imporant step when using wild clams, as even a bit of sand will render the dish inedible. That said, these days you can buy farm raised clams, which come with little or no sand in them. A local supermarket where I live sells farm raised clams from the nearby Chesapeake Bay. They are pre-cleaned and totally grit free. But your mileaage can vary. Best to check the label or ask your fishmonger.

If you have any doubts, go ahead and purge your clams just to be on the safe side. And if all else fails and you see sediment in your clam juices, strain it before proceeding with the recipe.

And if you want to be extra careful, you can steam the clams with a little white wine in a separate pot. Once they have opened, transfer them to the pan with the garlic and oil, along with their juices, leaving any stray sediment in the bottom of the pot.

Crema di pistacchio

The other bit of bother is actually finding the crema di pistacchio or pistachio butter. Here in North America, you can purchase imported crema di pistacchio, made with the prized Bronte pistachios, from Alma Gourmet. You can also buy domestic pistachio butter, aka pistachio cream aka pistachio paste. None of these options are cheap, but a little goes a long way. You want to look for one that’s 100% unsweetened pistachios, not the sweetened kind for desserts. I would also avoid one that’s salted if you can, as the clam sauce is already very savory, but it will do in a pinch.

If you can’t find unsweetened pistachio butter, then you can make it yourself, just as you would homemade peanut butter. Just blend together the pistachios, along with a drizzle of a neutral vegetable oil. Start slow, until you have a rough paste, then gradually increase the speed until you have a perfectly smooth, creamy puree. You will probably need to scrap the pistachios down a few times. If you’re using raw pistachios it’s best to roast them lightly to release their natural oils beforehand. About 10 minutes in a moderate 180C/350F oven should do the trick.

As for the pistachios for the topping, they too can be a bit tricky to source. Ideally, you want raw pistachios without salt or other flavorings. As popular as pistachios are these days, finding plain old fashioned unflavored pistachios can be a challenge. If you really need to, you can resort to roasted and lightly salted pistachios.

If you like, you can toss the raw pistachios in a dry skillet for a minute to bring out its natural oils, then roughly chop.

Variations

Many recipes for pasta vongole e pistacchi call for a pesto di pistacchio, or a pistachio pesto, rather than the pure pistachio purée. You typically make a pistachio pesto just like a standard pesto genovese, but substituting pistachios for the usual pine nuts, and omitting the garlic since you already have garlic in the pan. It’s not a combination that particularly appeals to me—I’m not a big fan of mixing cheese and clams— but if you can’t find pistachio cream, and don’t want to try making it a home, it’s worth a try.

Otherwise, you will also find recipes that simply have you add chopped pistachios, not a purée to the sauce. The result is not as creamy and a bit less pistachio forward, but still quite tasty.

You can also add a bit of grated lemon zest to brighten the dish. Add it to the sauce right at the end along with the pasta and minced parsley, or spinkle some on the finished dish. A few recipes for pasta vongole e pistacchi mention peperoncino, hot red pepper, which is a common addition to the original recipe, but if you ask me, it would throw this one off balance. Ditto for chopped fresh tomato, which you will also occasionally see.

And while spaghetti or linguine are classic pasta choices, you could branch out and try a ribbon pasta like fettuccine or taglatelle, which would carry the creamy sauce nicely. Even a shorter pasta like strozzapreti or, given the pistachios, the typically Sicilian busiate would be nice choices as well.

Making pasta vongole e pistacchi ahead

This isn’t really a dish you can make ahead. But in a pinch, you could make the sauce ahead and cook and dress the pasta when you’re ready to eat. In that case, make sure to keep the clams moist with a little bit of their juices.

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Pasta vongole e pistacchi

Pasta with Clams and Pistachios

Course: Primo

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: pasta, seafood

Servings: 6

Calories: 118.5kcal

Ingredients

• 500 g spaghetti or linguine
• salt

For the sauce:

• 1.5 kg clams about 10-12 clams per serving
• white wine
• 2-3 cloves garlic peeled and slightly crushed
• olive oil
• 2-3 Tbs unsweetened crema di pistacchio see Notes
• a few sprigs of fresh parsley trimmed of their stems and minced

For the topping:

• 60 g pistachios roughly chopped
• Another sprig of fresh parsley trimmed of its stem and minced

Metric – US

Instructions

Purge the clams

• Purge your clams of any sediment by soaking them in well salted water for at least an hour (see Notes below for details).

Start cooking the pasta

• Bring a large pot of well salted water to a rolling boil.
• Add the pasta and cook until almost al dente.

Prepare the sauce

• While the pasta water is coming to a boil, in a saucier or wok, gently sauté the garlic cloves and the parsley stems in a generous amount of olive oil.
• When the garlic is just beginning to turn color, raise the heat and add the clams and a splash of white wine. Cover and let the clams steam, shaking the pan from time to time.
• After a minute or two, uncover the pan and check on the clams to see if they’ve opened. If they have, using a slotted spoon or skimmer, transfer the clams to a large bowl. Once the clams are cool enough to handle, shell most of the them, leaving some unshelled for garnish.
• There should be ample clam juices in the pan. Strain them if you see any sediment. Otherwise, remove the garlic and parsley stems, and add the crema di pistacchio and give it a stir to dissolve. Then turn off the heat until the next step.

Finishing the dish

• Once the pasta is almost but not quite al dente, transfer it to the pan with the clam and pistachio sauce. Simmer over gentle heat, mixing constantly, until the pasta is fully cooked and has absorbed most but not quite all of the sauce. Add back the shelled clams and minced parsley and give it all a good mix.
• Transfer the dressed pasta to a serving dish. Garnish with the unshelled clams and sprinkle everything with the chopped pistachios and the rest of the minced parsley.
• Serve immediately.

Nutrition

Calories: 118.5kcal | Carbohydrates: 5.8g | Protein: 8.7g | Fat: 7.2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3.7g | Cholesterol: 11.3mg | Sodium: 1184.3mg | Potassium: 174.5mg | Fiber: 1.6g | Sugar: 1.2g | Vitamin A: 167IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 33mg | Iron: 1.2mg