Trenette With Clams, Pumpkin Flowers And Saffron

Preparation:

Preparation: Keep the clams in water and salt for a few hours to let them purge, then let them open in a large pan over high heat, stirring so that each of them can receive its right amount of heat. Once opened, shell them and add them in a basin to the cooking liquid without any sand (through a delicate pouring). Put oil, crushed garlic and a pinch of fresh chilli pepper in a pan. As soon as the garlic turns a nice colour, like crouton of golden bread, remove it and slowly add the cooking liquid from the clams and the courgette flowers cut into strips. Leave to reduce for a few minutes, five (more or less), over very low heat. Meanwhile cook the trenette. Once the sauce has the right density, add 1 pinch of saffron and 1 grind of pepper to the pan, raise the heat and transfer the pasta cooked al dente and the clams. Stir quickly and serve immediately. Notes: to vary the recipe, replace the clams with shrimps and courgette flowers with courgettes; in this case it is important that both the prawns and the courgettes are cooked as little as possible to leave their flavor unchanged; for vegetarians, on the other hand, the variant of this dish is a version without prawns and clams, with lots of zucchini flowers (about 40) sautéed with oil, garlic and saffron to preferably season egg pasta.