South America → Chile → Central Valley
🥗 STARTER
Machas a la Parmesana (Chilean Baked Clams with Parmesan)
Chilean surf clams opened onto their half shells, splashed with white wine and lemon, dotted with butter, blanketed with Parmesan and baked until golden and bubbling.
Chilean · easy · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 10 min
~214 cal · 10g protein · 3g carbs · 17g fat · 0g fiber · 1g sugars · 11g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Machas a la parmesana is one of Chile's classic starters. Machas are the long, pale surf clams of the Chilean Pacific coast, and here each one is laid in its half shell with a few drops of white wine and lemon, a little butter and pepper, and a thick layer of grated Parmesan, then baked just long enough for the cheese to melt and turn golden.
The dish is credited to an Italian immigrant, Edoardo Melotti Ferrari, who is said to have created it in Viña del Mar in the 1950s. It is served straight from the oven, on the shell, usually with a glass of white wine, and it is a fixture of Chilean seafood restaurants.
The clam should stay juicy and tender, so the cooking is short. Outside Chile, other large clams, razor clams or surf clams on the half shell are the nearest substitute.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
- 24 machas (Chilean surf clams) in the shell, or large clams
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- 1 lemon, plus wedges to serve
- 50 g butter, cut into 24 small cubes
- 1 cup (100 g) Parmesan, freshly grated, traditional Parmesan is made with animal rennet; strict vegetarians should use a vegetarian-rennet hard cheese
- to taste black pepper
- a pinch salt, the cheese is salty
Instructions
- 1Heat the oven to 220C (425F) or heat the grill. Scrub the machas under cold water.
- 2Open each one with a small knife, cut the muscle free of the top shell and discard it, and loosen the clam from the bottom shell so it can be eaten in one go. Lay the half shells on a baking tray, open side up.✎ Chef’s noteA crumpled sheet of foil under the shells keeps them level so the juices stay in.
- 3Put a few drops of white wine and a drop of lemon juice on each clam, then a pinch of pepper and a cube of butter.
- 4Cover each clam completely with a generous spoonful of Parmesan.
- 5Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, until the cheese has melted and turned golden in spots. Serve at once, in the shells, with lemon wedges.
Chilean coastal tradition, credited to Edoardo Melotti Ferrari of Viña del Mar.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Central Valley. Chilean wine kept a secret in these vineyards for a century. In November 1994 a visiting French ampelographer looked at a Maipo plot labelled merlot and identified it instead as carmenere, a Bordeaux variety all but wiped out at home by phylloxera, which had been growing here unrecognised the whole time.
🗺️
Chile. Pastel de choclo has no pastry: a meat and onion filling under a lid of ground fresh corn, sugar sprinkled on top and browned in the oven, served in the clay dish it was baked in. Ceviche is eaten here too but it is shared with and argued over against Peru, so nobody on this coast gets to claim it outright.
🌍
South America. Migration reworked the plate within living memory. Japanese arrivals in Peru and Brazil produced Nikkei cooking, Italians made pasta and pizza entirely ordinary in Argentina, Uruguay and Sao Paulo, and West African cooking carried into Bahia by the slave trade gave Brazil dende palm oil, okra and a whole ritual repertoire.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Chile
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Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Grill or barbecue.
Storing it: Keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and reheats covered in the oven. Most bakes can be assembled a day ahead and baked when needed.
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Cuisine
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Frequently asked questions
What is Machas a la Parmesana (Chilean Baked Clams with Parmesan)?
Chilean surf clams opened onto their half shells, splashed with white wine and lemon, dotted with butter, blanketed with Parmesan and baked until golden and bubbling.
Where does Machas a la Parmesana (Chilean Baked Clams with Parmesan) come from?
Machas a la Parmesana (Chilean Baked Clams with Parmesan) is a Chilean dish from Central Valley, Chile.
Can Machas a la Parmesana (Chilean Baked Clams with Parmesan) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Machas a la Parmesana (Chilean Baked Clams with Parmesan) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Machas a la Parmesana (Chilean Baked Clams with Parmesan) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Machas a la Parmesana (Chilean Baked Clams with Parmesan) take to make?
About 35 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 10 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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