🍽️ DINNER
Spaghetti alle Vongole
Spaghetti tossed with clams, garlic, white wine, and parsley, the Bay of Naples in eight ingredients.
Italian (Neapolitan) · medium · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 15 min
~611 cal · 15g protein · 87g carbs · 20g fat · 4g fiber · 3g sugars · 3g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Spaghetti alle vongole is Campania's love letter to the Bay of Naples, and along that coast it is both special-occasion food and weeknight food. It is a fixture of the Neapolitan Christmas Eve dinner, the meatless Cena della Vigilia built around seafood, yet it is just as likely to appear on an ordinary Tuesday whenever the clams are good.
Neapolitans make it in bianco, white, with no tomato, because the point is the clams and nothing should hide them. The sauce is close to nothing at all: the briny liquor the clams release as they open, a little white wine, garlic, olive oil, and parsley, swirled hard in the pan so the oil and clam juice emulsify into something that just coats each strand.
The whole art is restraint and timing. The clams are purged of grit in salted water beforehand, cooked only until they gape, and the pasta is pulled slightly underdone to finish in the pan sauce. Add cream or cheese and a Neapolitan will wince, because the discipline is knowing exactly when to stop.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, 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
- 2 lbs small clams (vongole), purged in salt waterHard to find? cockles or small littleneck clams - true Mediterranean vongole veraci are rarely sold abroad; cockles are nearest in size, littlenecks a touch meatier
- 1 lb spaghetti
- 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 2/3 cup dry white wine
- 1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- a pinch red chili flakes
- 1/3 cup olive oil
Instructions
- 1Warm the garlic and chili in the oil until fragrant, never browned.
- 2Add the clams (or mushrooms and kombu-wine) and the wine; cover and steam 3-4 minutes until the shells open. Discard any that stay shut.
- 3Cook the spaghetti 2 minutes shy of al dente.
- 4Drag the pasta into the pan with a cup of its water and finish it there, tossing hard so the starch and clam liquor emulsify into a clinging glaze.
- 5Shower with parsley and good oil. No cheese, Naples insists.
Bay of Naples, Campania tradition.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Campania. The craft of the Neapolitan pizzaiuolo went onto UNESCO's intangible heritage list in 2017, and the European traditional-speciality rules for pizza napoletana go further, setting out the dough, the hand-shaping and the ingredients, with San Marzano tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella named as the traditional choices.
🗺️
Italy. The full sequence of antipasto, primo, secondo and contorno is a special-occasion structure; most days a household eats one course, a vegetable and coffee. Bread stays on the table throughout and is not really a course at all, and using it to wipe the plate clean is expected enough to have its own name, fare la scarpetta, making the little shoe.
🌍
Europe. European cooking is built on the land and the seasons, wheat, butter, and cured pork in the north; olive oil, tomatoes, and seafood around the Mediterranean; preserved vegetables and hearty stews through long winters. Centuries of peasant tradition, guild craft, and royal courts refined techniques from French mother sauces to Italian fresh pasta and Central European baking. Regional identity runs remarkably deep, with a single dish often changing from one valley to the next.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Italy
Pasta alla NormaFried eggplant, tomato, basil, and salted ricotta over pasta, Catania's tribute to its favorite opera.
Tagliatelle al RagùBologna’s slow-simmered meat sauce folded through fresh ribbon pasta, the dish the world calls "bolognese," done right.
Trofie al Pesto GenoveseHand-twisted pasta with true Genoese pesto, plus the potatoes and green beans that Liguria insists belong in the pot.
Browse all Italy recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Steamer.
Storing it: Best fresh. Leftovers keep 2 days refrigerated; loosen with a splash of water or oil as you reheat so they do not clump.
Make it an Italy meal
LimoncelloDrink
TiramisùDessert
Pizza MargheritaLunch
Similar dishes from around the world
Char Kway TeowMalaysia
Chả Cá Lã VọngVietnam
Espageti AyisyenHaiti
Marshallese Macaroni SaladMarshall Islands
Salade Togolaise (Togolese Spaghetti Salad)Togo
Nom Banh ChokCambodia
Cuisine
Diet
Themes
Frequently asked questions
What is Spaghetti alle Vongole?
Spaghetti tossed with clams, garlic, white wine, and parsley, the Bay of Naples in eight ingredients.
Where does Spaghetti alle Vongole come from?
Spaghetti alle Vongole is an Italian (Neapolitan) dish from Campania, Italy.
Can Spaghetti alle Vongole be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Spaghetti alle Vongole 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 Spaghetti alle Vongole 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 Spaghetti alle Vongole take to make?
About 35 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.