I always get a bit put off by cooking and eating shellfish and the reason is really quite a petty one. Once on the plate, the slight delay it takes to remove the shellfish from the shell and get it to my mouth is enough to elicit a pass by. But not this time. Being in the vicinity of a local-ish fishmonger I’d heard good things about and fancying a pasta dish for dinner, I decided to make a bit more effort and get some clams.

The reason for labelling this dish British Vongole may be a bit of a stretch, but bear with me. Knowing Ms R eschews molluscs, I bought some Morecambe Brown Shrimp to add to the dish. The shrimp, plus a surfeit of leeks at home meant I could adapt the classic Venetian recipe with a (slightly) British twist.

British Style Vongole (serves 3-4):

1kg Clams

150g brown shrimp

Small bunch of flat leaf parsley

3 Cloves garlic

1 Leek

Glug extra virgin olive oil

Glass of white wine

Tin of tomatoes

Pinch chilli flakes

Salt & Pepper

Linguine or Spaghetti

Put a pan of salted water for the pasta on to boil. Stick the clams in a big colander and then inspect and check the clams to see if they’re all still alive. Tightly closed or closing when you tap them = good. Broken shells or ones that don’t close when you tap them = bad. It can be useful and highly entertaining if you have, or can borrow, a small child that can help with this (see above).

Finely slice the leek & garlic and sauté in the oil, in a separate pan. Separate the parsley stalks from the leaves, chop both and leave in separate piles. Add the chopped stalks to the leek & garlic. When soft, add the tomatoes and chilli flakes. Bring to the boil, but whilst this is happening, put the pasta in the pan with the boiling water. When the tomato, leek mixture is bubbling, add the wine and then the clams. Put the lid on the pan.

The Clams should be done (shells opened) after about 4-5 minutes. Add the brown shrimp, then drain the pasta and mix all together in whichever is the biggest pan of the two. Chuck any clams that haven’t opened. Stir through the chopped parsley leaves.

The taste of this dish turned out so much better than I was expecting. There was an issue in that there was quite a bit of juice, some of which I drained off before serving, but apart from that, it tasted divine. Perhaps the best part of the evening was watching the reaction of Mstr A, who was transfixed and highly entertained by watching the clams open, before tapping them and seeing them shut on their own, so that’s at least two reasons to cook this one again!