linguine alle vongole – the finer points of a perfect pasta
When I first met Francesco Mazzei at the Taste of London food festival we discovered a shared passion for linguine alle vongole. Our discussion concluded with this wager: If the vongole at L’Anima, Francesco’s Southern Italian restaurant, proved to be the best in London I would pay double. If his linguine with clams was second best, he would comp my entire dinner.
But after Regina Sabur (@gastrogeek1) and Dino Joannides (@Gastro1) joined the #vongole conversation via twitter and their London food blogs we raised the ante to something bigger and better: Linguine alle Vongole – The Finer Points of a Perfect Pasta. At this youngandfoodish event, Francesco would demo and effectively deconstruct this deceptively simple dish through a series of short web videos and then at a special October 2009 tasting dinner in the private dining room of L’Anima.
In covering the finer points of the dish, Francesco, a proud native of Calabria, tactfully left open a series of larger questions: What it is about this pasta classic that inspires loyalties as unbending as 40-second linguine? 
Why do so many coastal regions, including Campania, the Veneto and Brooklyn, claim the dish as their own? Why do tens of thousands revere their recipe as a family heirloom? And why do millions of diners who choose a fussier alternative pasta come to bemoan their transgression?
Answers to these questions were instead provided by over 100 devotees of the dish who entered our “why do you love linguine #vongole?” contest on twitter.
Click here to see the contest winning response.
Comments
Pingback from 2nd #vongole video – linguine or spaghetti: the necessity of long, slender & dry | Young & Foodish
Time 20 September 2009 at 9:52 am
[...] part 2 of linguine alle vongole – the finer points of a perfect pasta, Francesco Mazzei explains why it is essential to use a pasta that’s long, slender and [...]
Pingback from 3rd #vongole video – bronze die pasta: the rough cut with the right grooves | Young & Foodish
Time 20 September 2009 at 9:55 am
[...] part 3 of linguine alle vongole – the finer points of a perfect pasta, Francesco Mazzei explains why he and his vongole sauce cling to a bronze-cut pasta that’s [...]
Pingback from 4th #vongole video – extra virgin understatement | Young & Foodish
Time 20 September 2009 at 11:54 pm
[...] part 3 of linguine alle vongole – the finer points of a perfect pasta, Francesco Mazzei stresses the importance of cooking with an understated extra virgin olive oil [...]
Pingback from 5th #vongole video – the vongole “aperitivo” (dry white wine) | Young & Foodish
Time 22 September 2009 at 6:23 am
[...] part 5 of linguine alle vongole – the finer points of a perfect pasta, Francesco Mazzei of London’s L’Anima says you should open the white wine BEFORE you [...]
Pingback from 6th #vongole video – “emulsione” with “emozione” | Young & Foodish
Time 23 September 2009 at 12:12 am
[...] part 6 of linguine alle vongole – the finer points of a perfect pasta, Francesco Mazzei prepares a creamy emulsion by tossing the linguine with its starchy cooking water [...]
Pingback from 8th (and final) #vongole video: No Parmigiano-Reggiano | Young & Foodish
Time 24 September 2009 at 8:02 am
[...] part 8 of linguine alle vongole – the finer points of a perfect pasta, Francesco Mazzei warns against topping this pasta as well as other seafood with grated [...]
Pingback from 1st #vongole video – “spurgare le vongole”: the ritual of cleaning the clams | Young & Foodish
Time 17 September 2009 at 10:48 am
[...] “linguine alle vongole the finer points of a perfect pasta” is a series of eight short videos starring Francesco Mazzei, the chef at London’s L’Anima. In part 1 of the series – spurgare le vongole – Francesco explains the ritual of cleaning the clams. In Italian, spurgare means “to clean, purge” and can apply to forms of purging other than the removal of sand from clams. [...]