Spaghetti alle vongole

There are about two billion recipes for that on-line (yeah I know, I just copied this from the cassoulet page. It's just the same, except less beans and duck, and more pasta and cockles). So we've experimented a bit, asked an Italian friend of ours, wrote this down, but we're still experimenting really. So treat carefully, for this is fraught with peril and sand and shifting quantities.

Quantities are to feed two reasonably normal humans.

Ingredients

400g cockles

200g fresh spaghetti

3 cloves garlic (tried 2 last time and it wasn't enough), grated

Olive oil (preferably good)

Parsley, chopped

Method

Wash the cockles. How, is such a guarded secret that we don't really know. We've soaked the cockles in salt water for half an hour then rinsed them thoroughly, but that's clearly not enough.

Under-cook the pasta (typically that means two minutes for fresh pasta).

Meanwhile, gently fry the garlic in the olive oil in a heavy pan, for about a minute.

Add the cockles to the pan, cover. After a couple of minute most cockles should have opened.

Add the strained pasta to the pan, stir, cover and let simmer for a few minutes. (You undercook the pasta because it finishes cooking in the pan, in the mixture of oil and cockle sweat).

Add the parsley, stir. Serve with dry white wine (we especially like Canayli from Sardinia.