This pasta dish will transport you to summer and the sea

THE DISH

Pasta alle vongole, Italy.

PLATE UP

Is there any single dish that whispers "Mediterranean summer" in your ear quite as seductively as pasta alle vongole? Surely there's no other plate of food that can transport you so directly to that seaside village in the Amalfi, that trattoria in Cinque Terra. Pasta alle vongole captures the essence of the sea, but also the essence of summer, of holidays, of la dolce vita, of long afternoons with white wine and sparkling sunshine and a briny Mediterranean breeze. Sigh. More specifically, pasta alle vongole is long pasta – usually spaghetti, though sometimes linguine – with clams in their shells, plus a simple, emulsified sauce of olive oil, garlic, parsley, white wine, and the released juices from the cooked clams. Behold, the alchemical greatness of one of Italy's most enjoyable dishes.

FIRST SERVE

Though – unusually – this dish has been embraced throughout Italy, it has its origins in Naples, where so many of the classics were created. Neapolitans had been cooking with local carpet-shell clams (also known as Palourde clams, or in typical Neapolitan style, "vongole veraci", or "true clams"), to make soups since the 1600s. By the 19th century, a local duke and renowned cook, Ippolito Cavalcanti, had published a recipe for pasta with clams that is remarkably similar – using just pasta, oil, garlic, parsley and clams – to the one still popular today.

ORDER THERE

You're heading to Naples, of course, to sample some of the finest pasta alle vongole. Begin your adventures at the much-loved, 80-year-old trattoria Mimi alla Ferrovia (mimiallaferrovia.it)

ORDER HERE