linguine with garlic, oil and cockles
From the comments on my Facebook public page relating to the post, simply garlic, oil and cockles.
Emilia Cerullo: good …
Me: Emilia I have to say that they were really delicious but the thing that surprises me the most, after so long, is how much I get excited about simple food!
Ermanno Falcone: You are right to be exalted in front of the simplicity that touches excellence, Francesco. Congratulations on the dish.
Me: Ermanno thank you but today the credit goes to the cockles which were amazing! I hadn’t eaten so good for years!
Ermanno Falcone: Well, I envy you … here I am rare, something comes from Viareggio. Just give credit to the raw material, but also enhance it and honor its “end” 🙂 like you did.
It is true, I confess that I was moved by a pan of cockles and a bit of pasta and I thought about what Ermanno Falcone wrote.
It was almost a ritual through which I paid tribute to an excellent raw material, again for my good luck, without humiliating it.
I laid down professional weapons and, with the sensitivity that torments my soul, I identified with the cockles.
I immediately made out of the ingredients any tomato and wine that would have killed them instantly and let them be the only protagonists of Sunday lunch!
It may seem a trivial dish but I assure you that it is not easy to find the right balance of those few ingredients and get an excellent end result in which garlic, oil, parsley and chilli do not cover the sweet and delicate flavor of cockles .
And then, so that it is not one of those dishes that come to you just by chance once in a lifetime, I have carefully marked the proportions of the ingredients.
For 4 people:
800gr of live purged cockles
320gr of linguine
8 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil with a delicate taste
(it might seem a lot but keep in mind that the cockles opening up absorb a lot)
1 slice of garlic in slices
A nice bunch of fresh parsley
Fresh chilli to taste
The first thing to do is to put the water pot on the stove to cook the pasta.
When the water boils add the salt, pour the oil in a large pan, put the garlic into slices and let it go over medium heat.
Keep in mind that the average cooking time of the pasta is 7 minutes and during this time you will have to prepare the cockles.
When the garlic is almost ready (be careful not to burn it) and the hot oil, lower the pasta and at the same time add the cockles in the pan where you will also pour a ladle of pasta cooking water and possibly salt if necessary.
Cover the pan with a lid and immediately remove from the heat because the cockles should open but not cook.
While the pasta is cooking, add half the parsley and the chilli pepper to the cockles.
When the pasta is ready, pour it into the pan and put it back on the heat.
Add another ladle of cooking water and sauté quickly, finish with the rest of the parsley and serve directly in the pan.
The cockles must be eaten, strictly, with your hands!
