Traditional Spaghetti Vongole

It's still mussels season and I remembered the way I was taught to make Spaghetti Vongole from my school friend's Italian mama. So I picked up some fresh sea mussels from the supermarket yesterday and it wasboth easy to make and delicious.

It's a famous and easy to make dish and many may already know it, but I thought sharing the recipe was still worth it.

Ingredients for two very good male eaters so you may want to reduce the amount of pasta to what is appropriate for you. However I would not downsize on the ingredients that give dish the flavour.

• 5-6 tablespoons of good extra virigne olive oil
• 350g of Spaghettoni or regular Spaghetti if you can't get Spagettoni.
• 500g of fresh sea mussels
• 4 cloves of garlic
• half a fresh chili, I used the longer version which has only medium spiciness but you can adjust to your personal taste
• a glass of white wine or rosé (150-200ml of something drinkable, it really makes or breakes the dish if you substitute with broth or use dirt cheap cooking wine that is closer to vinegar)
• some grated Parmesan or Gran Padano cheese and a bit of fresh basil or parsley but the greens are not mandatory

First a few words about mussels and how to prepare them. They are alive creatures so discard obviously damaged shells, because they are most likely dead inside. Wash them under cold water, but don't soak them for extended periods of time. Then transfer them to a wooden chopping board and you should see the mussels have opened slightly. An easy way to check they are alive is to knock them on the chopping board a few times. The alive mussels should close again as a way to protect themselves. Most importantly though, do not eat mussels that are still closed after the cooking is done.

That being said, crush your garlic cloves and chopp them roughly,finely chop your chili as well. Bring your Spaghetti water to a boil, season generously with salt and add your pasta (10-12min cooking time) roughly around the same time you start the next step,. Add the olive oil to a frying pan on medium heat and sweat your garlic and chili for a couple of minutes, but you don't want them burned so add your wine. Turn up the heat to medium-high and let the sauce reduce for another minute or two before you add your mussels. At this point it should already taste fantastic and you can continue to cook your mussels on medium heat. They should almost immediately open wide up to reveal the meat inside. Discard any mussels that do not open at all. Slightly undercook your Spaghetti ("al dente") and transfer them directly into the pan. Don't forget to add a a tablespoon or two of the good pasta water, add your basil leafs and give it a good mix. There should be no need for any additional salt at this point, but feel free to check.

Portion the pasta and add the grated Parmesan chesse on top. It should be a treat!

bon appetit