Spaghetti alle Vongole: with or without tomato? Among the debates that divide Italians more than anything else, there is one that certainly stands out among them all. That’s the debate on timeless dish of spaghetti with clams. Friendships of a lifetime have been risked over a little tomato hiding between one spaghetti and another. Some people won’t admit it while others can't help but add red to the recipe; but be careful: there is more than one shade of red. Some people color spaghetti alle vongole with two cherry tomatoes here and there, while others prepare a real tomato sauce.
Is spaghetti alle vongole a dish to be made with or without tomato?
Of course, it can all be traced back to a question of personal taste – but we decided to go deeper: we asked Giovanni Rota, our chef at La Scuola de La Cucina Italiana, to analyze this dish with us to understand if, how and when to add tomato. Everything starts from the structure of the dish, in which each ingredient plays its part: pasta has a tendency to go towards sweetness, while clams are very tasty, we also have the aroma of parsley and the acidity of wine. In this way, the tomato has the same mission as the wine: to give complexity to the dish, dampening the flavor with the acidity and adding aroma. At this point, the addition of the tomato is not strictly "fundamental" for the dish success, but it remains a matter of taste and tradition.
Tomatoes in spaghetti alle vongole: how and when
So, spaghetti alle vongole in white or red? There's no right or wrong answer, but there is one rule. And that is when to add the tomato: whether it's a San Marzano or a Pomodorino del Piennolo, don't add it at the beginning. To prepare a perfect spaghetti alle vongole, you should drain pasta at half of the expected time or at 2/3 the time on the instructions. Then keep on cooking it in the clams liquid, in a pan, to obtain a creamy result. If the tomato was present right away, it would slow down the risottatura of the pasta, making it more difficult for the spaghetti to absorb the clam liquid.
The ideal method would be blanching the San Marzano tomatoes for a few seconds in boiling water and dip them in ice water to stop the cooking. Peel them and remove seeds. Add tomatoes in pieces during the last two minutes of cooking. This slightly teases the palate in a subtle way and it gives some color to the dish — where you find a little bit of tomato from time to time between one bite and another. The tomato can also be cooked separately, with a quick sauté, and then added to the pan. If you want a stronger and more robust tomato flavor instead, you can always add a few spoonfuls of tomato sauce at the end of the risottatura cooking time.
All that remains is to make sure that the guests are all in agreement about the sauce... but be careful not to quarrel with those who ask for grated cheese.