Pasta with clams and tomato sauce alla tarantina. – The Pasta project

Many people prefer to eat seafood at restaurants instead of making it at home. However, many seafood pasta recipes really are not difficult to make and do not let your house smell of fish! This pasta with clams and tomato sauce alla tarantina is such a bowl. It is incredibly tasty, easy to prepare and will definitely impress your guests!

Pasta con cozze alla Tarantina.

When it comes to seafood pasta, our go-to-bowl is often linguistic with clams (vongole). But I had some good pastes with clams and tomato sauce during a trip to Puglia and would really do something similar at home.

In fact, in this case, I didn’t cook this seafood pasta, I just requested it! My Sicilian hubby was the chef as he is seafood boil a Casa nostra! He made this spaghetti with clams alla tarantina and it was a perfect meal!

You can even serve mussels alla tarantina without pasta, like a finger-licking bowl with some crusty broke to mop the spicy tomato sauce!

Mussels from Puglia.

This pasta with mussel recipe comes from the Taranto province of Puglia. There are clams known as Tarantine Mussels, been grown for over 1000 years! These mollusks are quite large and have a whitish color. They are famous for their sweet taste. Today, Taranto apparently has the largest production of farmed Mediterranean mussels in the world.

Tarantine mussels are grown on rope and net suspended over poles and wooden structure in Mar Piccolo (Little Sea). A mixture of fresh water from 34 underground springs with salt water is mixed to provide a special marine environment that creates favorable conditions for clams and other types of seafood.

As you can imagine, mussels are an important ingredient in apulic seafood dishes, and there are some wonderful recipes with them from there. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find tarantine clams. However, those we used were very good and very fresh.

And cooking the mussels the apulic way made for a fabulous pasta plate that looked and tasted like good or even better, like the pasta with clams I’ve had at restaurants.

Ingredients for spaghetti alla tarantina.

This pasta with clams and tomato sauce recipe has very few ingredients. All you need are fresh clams, chopped fresh parsley, peeled and chopped garlic, tomato passport or peeled tomatoes, peperoncino flakes (red pepper flakes) and white wine. The latter is optional.

How to prepare Fresh mussels.

The most time -consuming part of this recipe involves cleaning the mussels.

First, check your clams one by one. Discard anyone with cracked or broken shells. If you have open mussels, give them a gentle pressure – if they do not close within a minute or so, throw them.

Then place the mussels in a doorstep or bowl in the sink. Rinse them under plenty of running cold water to remove the surface sling and grain. Use a stiff brush to scrub each clam to remove any sand, stable or dirt stuck on the shell.

Finally, many clams have a fibrous tuft that protrudes between shells – this is called “beard”. To remove it, hold the clam in one hand and pull the beard firmly against the hinges of the shell (not against the opening) – it can take a good tug. Alternatively, you can use a paring knife to help pull it out.

Step by step instructions.

1) Place the washed mussels in a large saucepan and cook them alone over a medium heat until they open and release some liquid.

2) Remove the mussels to a large bowl and filter the remaining liquid through a fine towel or piece of cheese cloth in a bowl.

3) Let the mussels cool slightly, then discard all mussels that did not open. Keep some clams in their shells and remove the other mussels from their shells.

4) In a large frying pan, saute the chopped garlic and peperoncino flakes in 3 tablespoons olive oil, add the peeled mussels. Cook for a moment. If you are using, add a little white wine and let the alcohol evaporate.

5) Then add the mussels in their shells and cook for another minute. Then add the tomato passport, the filtered clam water, a pinch of salt and a little pepper.

6) Mix everything together and let it small over a low heat for about 5-10 minutes until the liquid is reduced to a good consistency. Add some of the chopped parsley.

7) Cook the pasta al dente in a large saucepan with salted water according to the package. When the pasta is cooked, drain it and add it to the pan with clams and tomato sauce. Mix everything well.

8) Plate immediately with a little more fresh parsley.

The pasta for mussels alla tarantina.

We used a thick spaghetti for this dish, but you can also use normal spaghetti, spaghetti alla chitarra or linguine. You can also use fresh tomatoes or canned peeled tomatoes instead of passata and fresh or dried peperoncino. If you do not have fresh parsley, fresh basil is a good replacement.

Alla Tarantina is also delicious without pasta!

There are some different versions of this pasta with Mussel’s Alla Tarantina recipe, for example without clams in their shells or without wine. But I loved having these clam shells on my plate. And of course, if you eat this sauce without pasta, you definitely have to keep most mussels in their shells, otherwise you have no need to lick your fingers!

Pin for later.

If you make this spaghetti with Musling’s Alla Tarantina recipe, I would love to hear how it turns out. Write a comment here on the blog or leave a comment on the Pasta Project Facebook page.

Your feedback means a lot to me!

Buon Appetito!

Look at my favorite pasta recipes on seafood if you are interested in more delicious pasta recipes!

Other seafood pasta recipes.

1. Sardinian fregola with clams
2. Pasta with clams and black beans
3. Linguine all vongole (with clams)

This recipe was originally published in 2017 but has been updated.