Neapolitan Fat Pasta with Seafood Sauce / Scialatielli
I love making scialatielli, a very popular pasta in Naples that is not often made at home any more. Besides eggs and flour, the dough contains milk, grated cheese and parsley or basil. It is most often served with a seafood sauce.
SERVES 4

Ingredients
- 2 ounces extra virgin olive oil
- 1 garlic clove , minced
- 1 handful of minced fresh parsley
- 3 pounds clams or mussels, scrubbed
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
- Salt and pepper
- 1 extra large egg
- 1/3 to 1/2 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tablespoon grated Pecorino cheese
- 2 tablespoons minced basil or parsley leaves
- Ingredients
Directions
- Place egg, 1/3 cup milk, olive oil and salt in bowl of food processor and whirl until smooth. Add flour and cheese and pulse until mixture is grainy looking. Add parsley and pulse just until dough begins to leave the sides of bowl. If dough is too dry, add a little of the remaining milk until you can pinch a piece of dough between your fingers and it does not crumble.
- Transfer dough to a floured surface and knead into a smooth ball. Place a bowl upside down over the dough and allow to rest for 30 minutes to relax the gluten and make it easier to roll.
- Divide the dough into quarters and keep three covered while working the first piece. Flatten the dough to a four inch wide piece. Place it through the rollers of a hand crank pasta machine set to the fattest setting (#1). Set the rollers to the next fattest setting down (#2) and run the dough through again.
- Use a small knife to cut 1/8 inch wide strips and place the strips on a clean towel. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Cook the scialatielli in 4 quarts of rapidly boiling salted water for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup of the cooking water. Add the scialatielli and water to the sauce pan and toss well. Serve hot.
- Heat the olive oil in a 12-inch or larger sauté pan; add the garlic, parsley and clams and toss for a couple of minutes. Add the wine, cover the pan and cook until the clams open; discard any that do not.
- Remove the clams from their shells, (Save a few in their shells for garnish.) catching any juices over a bowl. Set clams aside. Strain the liquid and set aside.
- Return the clams to the sauté pan along with the cherry tomatoes. Add back the liquid. Correct seasoning. Keep warm while the pasta cooks.
This recipe was featured on Season 20 - Episode 2024.
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Comments
Kathy
Can’t wait to try this recipe. Looks so good.
Maria Elena
Glad to find the recipe, i am excited
of being able to try this very soon
Seth Hensel
I’ve made this recipe twice now and it is a phenomenal success at our family table. Not mentioned in the write-up but sort of obvious from the video is the speed with which this comes together. I’d be very surprised if it takes more than a half-hour front to back not including the drying time for the pasta.
Couple of hints: Use King Arthur Italian flour for a reasonably accurate pasta flavour.
Use the best quality Pecorino you can afford or find. Don’t feel the need to use marginal cherry tomatoes if you have great heirlooms at hand. It is the taste that matters not the size. And……plant your own herb garden! The improvement over store bought basil or parsley is not subtle. Great recipe. Thanks.
Helen Campadonico
I Made this last night. Wow! what a hit, this is definately a “redo”. I made 2X the pasta for 4 adults and 2 grandbabies and all tht remained was a small cereal bowl. Noone hardly touched “il secondi”. This dough recipe is one of the best I’ve ever made, the texture and ease of handling only enhances it’s subtle complex flavor.
I did have to substitute fresh cherry tomatoes with imported canned ones that I stock in my pantry. I used 3 14oz cans and strained out the extra juice. Also my clams were already shucked and their liquor strained,so it cut out one step of prep. Buonissima! Brava!
Lisa Criniti-Ciervo
Ciao Marianna! I am planning on making this for one of our courses on Christmas Eve. Do you think I can make the pasta in advance? And if so, how do you think I should preserve it? Hang to dry? freeze in “nests”?
Mille grazie! Lisa