Fregula con le Arselle
Fregula con le Arselle
Toasted Couscous with Clams
Fregula con arselle is a blend of old and new. Fregula, a toasted pasta very similar to toasted Israeli (pearl) couscous, has been made in Sardinia for about one thousand years. Clams, on the other hand, only entered the mainstream island cuisine with the arrival of widespread refrigeration and rise of seaside tourism in the twentieth century. (Before that, Sardinians didn’t catch much fresh seafood, and fregula was paired with vegetable or meat stews.) Today, the clam variety you’ll encounter most frequently on the Sardinian coast is called arselle, or vongole veraci, a small, meaty, warm-water bivalve that can be substituted elsewhere with Manila clams or littleneck clams. Cook them as an islander would: just barely, so they retain their tenderness and fresh sea flavor without becoming chewy. And if you want to give this dish an additional Sardinian kick, finish it with a dusting of grated Bottarga—but don’t you dare put cheese on it. Serving clams with cheese is a mortal sin in Italy.
Ingredients (8)
Ingredients (8)
Instructions
Heat the olive oil (½ cup) in a large skillet over low heat.
When the oil begins to shimmer, add the garlic (1 clove) and cook until it just starts to take color, about 3 minutes.
Add the parsley (3 sprigs) and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Add the clams (2 lb) and wine (½ cup).
Increase the heat to medium-high and cook, shaking the pan to coax open the clams. Using tongs, remove the clams just as they open and set aside in a medium bowl.
Add the fregula (1 lb) to the pan with the clam juice.
Simmer, adding water as necessary to keep the fregula nearly covered, until the juices in the pan have thickened and the fregula has lost its raw flavor.
Add the cooked clams back to the pan and swirl vigorously to combine.
Notes
Notes
To clean the clams, rinse and discard any with broken shells, then place in a bowl of cold seawater or salted water and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour to purge any sand from the clams. In Italy, fishmongers warn you that clams that have been harvested on rough days might have extra sand stuck inside them. If you find that you have very sandy clams, you can filter the clam cooking juice by pouring it through a coffee filter or paper towel.
Comments
Purchase cookbook to comment