“This useful collection of pasta sauces includes all the classics gleaned first hand during the years I lived and worked in Italy. I have also included recipes specially developed for my regular demonstrations at the GtwoClub on the banks of the river at Ross-on-Wye. All are inspired by authentic Italian ingredients now available the world over. All are strongly rooted in the traditions of delicious Italian regional cooking. Classic recipes include Mamma Tina Montetti’s Ragu’ from Bologna. Pesto from the palm lined avenues of Porto Maurizio in Liguria, Carbonara from Carolina’s restaurant in Piazza della Quercia in Rome. Other sections of the book are devoted to vegetable, fish and seafood, meat and poultry and dairy based sauces.”

One of my favourite sauces
Baby clam sauce
Spaghettini alle vongole in bianco
Spaghettini with clams is typical of the regional cuisine of almost every coastal area, but I associate it most with Campania and holidays years ago on the Costa Amalfitana, in Positano, Ischia and Capri. I remember balmy nights spent in waterside restaurants, diners oozing style, the sound of lapping water and the chink of shells on the plate. The sauce comes in two versions, in bianco (oil, garlic and parsley) or al pomodoro (tomato) There is also an easy store-cupboard version I make at home, using jars of clams and canned Italian tomatoes.

The sauce:
1kg fresh clams in their shells
A wine glass of olive oil
1 clove of garlic
Piece of chilli
2 handfuls of parsley finely chopped

To serve:
500g spaghettini
Extra olive oil, chopped parsley and black pepper

Wash the clams in plenty of running salted water until not a trace of sand is left. Drain well. Place the clams in a heavy based pan over high heat. Cover and shake the pan until all the clams have opened. Strain off the liquid and put through a fine sieve and reserve. Reduce if necessary.

Heat the olive oil in a medium sized pan, add a little garlic and chilli and heat through gently. When the garlic starts to turn golden discard it with the chilli. Add the clams to the pan with the liquid, finely chopped parsley and cook gently for a minute or two for the flavours to come together.

Add the clams to the spaghettini and mix well. Tip onto a large serving plate and add lots of black pepper, a flurry of parsley and a drizzle of olive oil. Serve at once.

Preserves
published September 2004