Pasta arrosto con le arselle (roasted spaghetti with baby clams)

This is similar to fideua – a paella of sorts using pasta instead of rice. Here, the pasta is ‘roasted’ in the sauce.

SERVES 4

 1kg clams or cockles

 100ml olive oil

 Handful of finely chopped

flat-leaf parsley

 1 garlic clove, chopped

 5 tomatoes, peeled, de-seeded

and diced

 Sea salt and black pepper

 40g pine nuts, lightly crushed

in a mortar

 100g podded fresh peas

 400g spaghetti, broken up into

small pieces

1 Put the clams, with a little water, in a saucepan. Cover with a lid and place over high heat for about 3min, until the clams open. Strain the liquid into a bowl and set aside the clams, keeping the saucepan handy. When the clams have cooled, take them out of their shells and place in the bowl with the cooking water.

2 Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/ gas mark 4. Add the olive oil into the pan the clams were cooked in and place it back over a medium heat. Add the chopped parsley and garlic; stir and then sizzle for 3min.

3 Add the tomatoes and a little salt and pepper, mixing thoroughly. Allow the sauce to reduce over a medium heat for 6min. Next add the pine nuts, the peas and the broken-up spaghetti. Stir and add the reserved water from the clams. Cook over a medium heat for another 6min, stirring regularly.

4 Stir in the clams, then spread the mixture over a baking tray or ovenproof frying pan. Bake for 10min until the pasta on the surface starts to turn golden.

5 Remove from the oven and leave to rest for 5min before serving.