Fregola with Clams, Tomato and Saffron
Fregola is what happens when Sardinia looks at couscous and decides it should be toasted. Semolina is traditionally rolled by hand with water into small irregular pellets, dried, and then toasted until the outside browns. Toasting gives the grains a nutty flavor and a firm shell that holds up through a quarter of an hour or more of simmering in broth. For this dish, fregola is not boiled and drained like pasta. It is cooked like risotto, in just enough liquid, until it has absorbed the flavor of whatever it sat in.
The classic is fregola con arselle, fregola with tiny clams, a dish of the Cagliari coast where the pellets simmer in a light tomato broth built on the clams' own liquor, with garlic and parsley. This version adds a pinch of saffron, which Sardinia grows around San Gavino Monreale. Below are the method with fresh clams and a quicker one built on a tin of Galician clams.
The pantry
Toasted fregola, such as Rustichella d'Abruzzo's fregola sarda (shop Rustichella fregola sarda). Saffron threads, such as Herati saffron (shop Herati saffron). Extra virgin olive oil; the olive oil buying guide covers choosing one. Canned or fresh tomatoes, either a few crushed San Marzanos or a big spoon of passata. And clams: fresh littlenecks or Manilas, or a tin of Galician clams such as Conservas de Cambados clams (shop Conservas de Cambados clams), from the Arousa cannery profiled in the Conservas de Cambados guide.
Why it works
Clams release a salty, sweet liquor when they open, and that liquor is the sauce. The tomato gives it body and acidity, the saffron gives it color and a faint honeyed bitterness, and the toasted fregola thickens the broth slightly with its starch while absorbing it, the way rice does in a risotto. The finished dish should be loose, almost a thick soup, eaten with a spoon. Left to sit, the fregola keeps drinking and the dish tightens, so serve it the moment it is ready.
The recipe, with fresh clams
Serves four. About forty minutes, plus twenty to purge the clams.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds small clams, littleneck or Manila, scrubbed
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more to finish
- 3 garlic cloves, sliced
- A pinch of chile flakes
- 1 cup crushed tomatoes or passata
- A generous pinch of saffron threads, about 20, steeped in 2 tablespoons hot water
- 1 1/2 cups (about 300 g) toasted fregola
- About 4 cups light fish stock, chicken stock or water, hot
- 1/2 cup dry white wine, optional
- A handful of parsley, chopped
- Salt, lemon
Method
- Purge the clams in cold salted water for twenty minutes; discard any that stay open when tapped.
- In a wide pot, warm the oil over medium heat with the garlic and chile until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the clams and the wine, if using, cover, raise the heat and cook until the clams open, 4 to 6 minutes. Lift the clams into a bowl with a slotted spoon, leaving the liquor in the pot. Discard any that did not open. Shell half the clams and keep the rest in their shells for the plate.
- Add the tomatoes and the saffron with its water to the pot and simmer 3 minutes.
- Stir in the fregola. Add hot stock a cup at a time, stirring now and then, keeping the fregola just covered, as you would a risotto. It will take 14 to 17 minutes to become tender with a slight bite; start tasting at 14. Taste for salt near the end, since the clam liquor may have done the job.
- When the fregola is done and the broth is loose and slightly thickened, return all the clams to the pot for a minute to warm through. Stir in the parsley and a good thread of olive oil.
- Serve in warm shallow bowls with lemon on the side.
The quicker version, with a tin
Open a tin of Galician clams in brine or natural juice. Pour the liquid into a measuring cup and top up with water or stock to about 4 cups. Cook the garlic, chile, tomato and saffron as above, add the fregola, and cook it in the clam liquid and stock exactly as in the fresh-clam method. Fold in the tinned clams for the last minute only, so they stay tender. The tin's liquid does the job the fresh clams' liquor does in the pot, which is why it goes into the measuring cup and not down the drain. Sliced razor clams work here too, and the razor clam guide explains why tinned razor clams taste the way they do.
Variations and notes
Swap the clams for mussels, or use both. In summer, add a handful of cherry tomatoes at the tomato stage. Leave out the tomato entirely for a white version, and add more saffron. Leftovers make a cold salad the next day, dressed with lemon and olive oil.
At Denver's altitude, expect the fregola to need a few extra minutes and a little more stock, as the Denver altitude cooking guide explains.
