Spaghetti con le vongole
and a Lagoon boat trip lost in the fog
I didn’t know what silence is, I said, while I am floating in the void. It looks like Paradise – however you call it – the place where we go afterward, doesn’t it? Francesco smiles under the wet scarf.
I am experiencing a new and inconsistent taste: the fog, that enters the nose and rests on the tongue, a bit salty. When you’re inside it, you can’t escape. It’s like being in a dream and trying hard to wake up, in vain, until the doubt of being already awake arises as an upsetting possibility.
My eyes are wide open but there’s nothing to see.
The edge of salvation lies within the border of something that floats over a sidereal space, deep and blue. Am I on a magic carpet? In my bed? On a boat?
There’s only white light around me, it almost hurts the eyes, so bright it is. All landmarks are gone, and all certainties become doubts in that fascinating, enveloping, and attracting brightness.
Let’s go back, I ask Francesco squeezing my eyes, while the shape of something appears far away, as a miraculous answer. Land! Land! Land!
A white heron with huge wings rises from that purple strip and immediately disappears in the bright sky.
I know where we are – I almost screamed! It’s our beach, pull over, pull over!
The tide of those green but transparent waters slowly carries us ashore, with its sweet cradling, so typical of the Venice lagoon.
The silence is deafening, it is broken only by the coarse cry of a cormorant, annoyed by our raid into that seemingly celestial space or the unexplored surface of another planet. There are no craters but purple plants and flowers.
There are no footprints in the sand; they have been washed away by the high tide, which takes over those few meters of otherwise exposed beach every 6 hours.
The bottom part of the boat – the edge of Salvation – smoothly lays on the dark sand, which is covered by oysters and clam shells.
Apollo 11 landing.
I am almost swallowed by the clayish ground, while I almost lose my boot and some cold water freezes my ankle.
If this is Paradise, and I am with you, it’s going to be fun, I tell Francesco. What shall we do now? Are you hungry? I always am.
We walk together wrapped in the fog that bathes our hair. I remember this place, we have been here before.
It was summer, when the pink sunset had set the green water on fire, making it red with sparkling lava, and we were watching it right from here, sitting on the bow of our small boat, our feet soaking in the water.
Another time, at the same spot, a large mullet had jumped directly onto our boat, almost offering itself after an unsatisfactory day of fishing.
From this place, we also saw nightfall. Just like fog, the night causes a sense of dismay, but instead of being enveloped in white brightness, it is complete darkness.
The moon, if it is visible in the sky, is the only landmark. I don't know which of the two situations is more frightening, but in both cases, the senses are the only resource one can use.
The rustling of rushes tells us where the canal begins, the smell of clay that the land is near, and the warm air that the tide is rising.
The small holes in the sand tell us that it is full of shellfish, especially clams… good ones, too!
While we wait for the fog to dissipate a bit - which it won't - we talk about spaghetti alle vongole, "caparossoli" as we call them in Venetian dialect.
There are so many we could fill a bucket, but we take only a few of them, just to make our spaghetti dream real. We have fresh parsley in our orchard, while garlic has already been picked and is drying out near the woodshed. They are both essential ingredients of this simple and very Venetian dish.
I push the boat with the oar toward the middle of the canal. We are only a few meters away and the shore has already disappeared in the still thick fog.
Venezia is down there, somewhere. On the opposite side is Chioggia. Behind us are the fields taking us right into the Venetian countryside, where we live. We will return home, you’ll see. We only have to follow our senses and a precise direction, that one, in front of us. Towards the spaghetti we will eat in a little while.
SPAGHETTI CON LE VONGOLE
Ingredients:
(Serves 4)
1 kg fresh wild clams (vongole)
380 g spaghetti
1 big bunch of fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 glass of white wine
1 tsp Sea salt (for the pasta water)
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp Extra-virgin olive oil
Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
About vongole - how to proceed
Important: clams must be picked (or purchased) alive and if they are fresh, they should all be closed. Before cooking clams, it’s important to purge them of any sand that might be inside the closed shells. The clams you find at the market usually come from fish farming and they are sold already purged, but despite that, it's very probable they still retain some impurities inside.
Soaking them in salty water for a couple of hours before using them is highly recommended.
If the clams are wild, like the ones I collected in the lagoon, the soaking step is mandatory and it takes at least one night.
The salinity of the water is very important in order to allow the clams to open and release the dirt, so whenever possible, use seawater.
If you just have tap water, you can add coarse sea salt and the quantity to be added is 35-37 grams per liter, thus about 2 tablespoons.
Consider that cooking salt is refined and, if you combine it with fresh water, you can just grossly simulate the chemical composition of seawater, so doses should be done with the greatest possible care.
Clams should be left quiet, in silence, and in the dark, inside a ceramic or glass bowl (avoid metal or plastic).
Instructions:
Put a large pan of water with 1 tsp of coarse salt over the heat and bring it to a boil.
Heat 3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil in a deep frying pan on high heat with parsley and garlic finely chopped. Leave a few parsley leaves aside.
Add the spaghetti to the boiling water and cook according to packet instructions, until al dente. While pasta is cooking, proceed with the next steps.
Very gently fry the garlic and parsley, add the clams, and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Shake the pan from time to time.
After about 3 or 4 minutes the clams will start opening, so keep shuffling the pan around until all of them have opened. Add the wine and a big pinch of black pepper and sautè the clams for 2 more minutes without the lid. Take the pan off the heat.
Throw away any clams that haven't opened and discard the shells of half of the clams... It'll be easier eating them!
Drain the cooked spaghetti, and add to the pan of clams. Add some extra fresh chopped parsley leaves and toss for 1 minute.
Serve immediately.