We had a lot of clams (27), with only 10 ounces of a great spaghetti, but, hey, they were smaller (littlenecks)  than we sometimes have with this dish, so there’s that.

It’s curious however that we’ve found less clam and more pasta does nothing to compromise the flavor of this dish, and in fact less might even be preferred, but we won’t complain, especially when the bivalves are as fresh and delicious as these were.

• ten ounces of Afeltra pasta artigianale di Gragnano I.G.P. 100% grano Italiano biologico from Flatiron Eataly that had been cooked al dente and drained, tossed into a large, enameled cast iron pot in which three minced ‘Chesnok Red’ garlic cloves (whose origin is the Republic of Georgia) from Alewife Farm and one whole dried Itria-Sirissi chili (peperoncino di Sardegna intero) from Buon Italia [two would have been better] were heated in some olive oil, mixed well, followed by two dozen (actually, 27, the extra being a fish monger’s traditional lagniappe) wild eastern Long Island littleneck clams from the American Seafood Company stall in that day at the Saturday Chelsea’s Down to Earth Farmers Market on West 23rd Street, along with their cooking juices, that had just been scrubbed and steamed with a little water inside a third pot until they had opened (and every one of them did open), the entire mix sprinkled with a few tablespoons of parsley from Phillips Farms, chopped, and served in shallow bowls, low bowls for the shells to the side
• slices from a loaf of ‘Seedy Grains’ bread (wheat, spelt, rye, and barley organic bread flours; buckwheat; oats; flax sesame, sunflower, and pumpkin seeds; water, and salt) from Lost Bread Co.
• the wine was a Portuguese (Vinho Verde) white, Antonio Lopes Ribeiro 2017 (Casa de Mouraz) Vinho Verde ‘Biotite’, from Chambers Street Wines
• the music was a cantata-like work by the interesting Dutch/German composer Julius Röntgen (1855-1932), ‘Aus Goethes Faust’,  for orchestra, organ, chorus, and soloists, David Porcelijn conducting the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra and the Koor van de Nationale Reisopera Enschede, with Machteld Baumans, Marcel Beekman, Andre Morsch, Andre Post, Mark Richardson, and Dennis Wilgenhof