Spicy onion, tomato and clam soup
Yesterday was the first evening I turned on the heating. We are now in mid autumn, the days are starting to get shorter and it is a real pleasure to spend the evenings at home. The dull light of this season is beautiful, it highlights all the clouds and the shades of blue of the sky, I think my favorite when it comes to photographing the lagoon.
Despite some small nuisances, life is good. There are some new interesting exhibitions I will soon virtually take you to, like the Duchamp one at the Peggy Guggenheim and the one dedicated to Venetian portraits of the 1800s in Ca' Pesaro. For today, though, I will limit myself to sharing a simple warm recipe, perfect for this time of year.
It features only few ingredients: the last tomatoes of the year, nice and moist and ideal for making sauce, golden onions, chili, herbs and lagoon clams, which were given to Vittorio by a friend of his.
Native Venetian clams, as you can see from the photos, are slightly smaller in size compared to other varieties, like the Atlantic ones. But in the same way one should not judge a book by its cover, please don't think they are less tasty. On the contrary, they are exquisite and have a lovely saltiness.
When cooking with seafood like clams or mussels, I believe it is always better not to add salt immediately, but to adjust it once the seafood has been added. I also like to keep a couple of clams with their shell to garnish the dish when serving. Please consider that you will need to add the toasted bread in order to keep the clams afloat! Otherwise... they will sink and your guests might find themselves giving hard bites!
With this said, I hope you will enjoy this soup and look forward to your feedback. Find the recipe below, and don't forget to let me know.
RECIPE
SPICY ONION, TOMATO AND CLAM SOUP
Ingredients (for 2): 300 gr clams
10 small tomatoes
1 golden onion
1 fresh chili
1 crushed clove of garlic
e.v.o.oil
herbs of choice
+ 4/6 slices of brown bread
Method:
Start by purging your clams. Rinse the clams, and leave them in a bowl covered in water and a pinch of salt for about 1 hour. Change water twice if you see there is a lot of sand sediment.
Meanwhile, peel the onion and rinse the tomatoes. Chop roughly. Heat a pot, add a few drops of e.v.o.oil, the fresh chili sliced in half and with the seeds removed, and the chopped vegetable.
Stir, lower the heat and cover the pot. After about 3 minutes, pour 2 cups (1/2 liter) of vegetable broth. Bring to the boil and let simmer for 30 minutes. Don't add salt. Once ready, blend and keep aside.
Heat a pan, add a few drops of e.v.o.oil, a crushed clove of garlic and cook the clams. They are ready when they open. At this point, remove garlic and add their water to the soup. taste and adjust salt to your taste. Remove the clams from their shells and add them to the soup (keep just a few to garnish).
Toast some brown bread, pour the soup into the bowl, add the bread and top with the shelled clams, herbs and a few more drops of e.v.o.oil.
Enjoy!
