Maccheroni with Pipis

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A delicious and easy to make seafood pasta using pipis - otherwise known as clams or vongole. The sauce comes together relatively effortlessly; just garlic, chilli, capers, tomato and a bit of white wine before adding the pipis and some fresh parsley. You can use fresh chilli here, but I love the zing fermented chilli brings to the plate in this sauce.

Maccheroni al ferro is a tube of pasta made by rolling dough around a ferro - or rod/skewer of some description. There is a plethora of information in The Encyclopedia of Pasta on maccheroni (or maccarruni/maccherone) so if you don’t already have this book in your arsenal I highly recommend you grab yourself a copy.

While I’ve chosen to pair this with maccheroni, this sauce would be absolutely wonderful with linguine or another long shape too.

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Maccheroni with Pipis

Serves 2

Ingredients 

For the pasta

• 200g semolina rimacinata

• 100ml warm water

For the sauce

• 3 tablespoons EVOO

• 3 garlic cloves, finely sliced

• 1 tbsp fermented chilli - you could also substitute for 1 fresh chilli, diced

• 1 tbsp capers

• 2 tbsp tomato paste

• 10 or so cherry tomatoes, halved

• 1/3 cup dry white wine

• 350g pipis/clams - purged

• Fresh parsley, finely chopped - about a handful

Method

For the pasta 

1. Follow the instructions for my semolina pasta dough here and rest for at least 1 hour.

2. Once rested, cut 1/8 sized piece from the dough (keep the rest covered so it doesn’t dry out).

3. Roll this out into a long and thin rope, about 1cm in width.

4. Cut the rope into 6cm pieces.

5. Using a wooden kebab skewer or a ferro if you have one, place the skewer just shy of centre length ways on a piece of the dough and press it down.

6. Using your dominant hand, press the top part of the palm over base of the dough and roll it a few times to cover the skewer so the dough is now fully wrapped around.

7. Switch to the fingers on both hands and roll the dough from the centre outwards a few times to lengthen the dough and ensure an even surface. Be mindful not to apply too much pressure otherwise the pasta will stick to the skewer.

8. Gently twist/slide the pasta off the skewer and set aside on a clean tea towel to dry slightly while you work through the rest of the dough.
   
   You can watch a video of me making this shape here.

For the sauce and finishing touches

1. Bring a pan of water to a rolling boil and salt generously.

2. Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan and add the sliced garlic and fermented chilli.

3. Allow that to cook gently over a low heat for 5 minutes, before adding the capers, tomato paste and cherry tomatoes - sauté for another couple of minutes until the tomatoes start to blister.

4. Pour in the wine and the pipis and continue cooking for several minutes until the pipis have opened - discard any that don’t open.

5. While the pipis are cooking, start cooking the maccheroni - they will only take 2-3 minutes if cooking from fresh.

6. Once the pasta is al dente, scoop out of the water with a slotted spoon and add directly into the sauce (take some of that pasta water with it!!) along with a handful of chopped parsley.

7. Toss and stir to marry. Serve immediately.