Friday, October 14, 2011

Spaghetti Vongole (from Jamie Does Italy)



To all my new readers out there, I just want to say right now that there will be A LOT of Jamie in this little blog of mine. He has to be, hands down, my favourite chef.

It all started back in 2002 when his Naked Chef series started airing on Aussie television. Here was a cutie who not only taught me how to make puttanesca from scratch but also influenced me so much, I ordered my first ever carpaccio in Paris not knowing it basically was thinly, sliced raw meat!

I fell in love (yes, I used the word, "love") with his humour and his pukka one liners and because of him, my culinary repertoire has grown by leaps and bounds.

The love affair still continues and last night, I whipped up his spaghetti vongole.

I have very vivid memories of this dish from a family trip to Venice not so long ago and was aching to recreate it in my own home. In Italy, the locals ate pasta dishes as their entree, not as the main. Additionally, I discovered that the Italians also considered the pasta itself as the star of the dish, not the sauce that accompanied it. Thus most pasta dishes in Italy are dressed very minimally and not drowned in sauces like in Australia.

VERDICT: 7/10 Jamie does put a disclaimer at the bottom of his recipe stating that this dish gets better with practise which I agree wholeheartedly. It is an amazingly fresh dish, perfect for a summer's supper, accompanied by a glass of chilled white wine.

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