Telline aka The Cutest Little Clams Ever

We made another trip to the grand market today. Deme loved the variety and we had a blast. We came away with these tiny, delicate little clams. He said they were little but had wonderful flavor (of course I wanted to give them a try). I was a bit wary since from the looks of them, it was going to be a labor intensive lunch. As it turns out, he was right. They were fantastic and not much more work that shelling pistachios or sunflower seeds.



We bought about 1 kilo and in that kilo I think there were easily hundreds of little clams.



Clams and pasta in a simple white wine sauce just cannot be beat. I wanted to add some tomato and make it more of a hearty dish but Deme said the tomato would mute the fresh flavor of these delicate beauties. (If you want to try them, see my recipe for Fasolari con Lunguini. Adjust the time, since these are much, much smaller.)


On a bit of a negative note:
I did feel sad however at seeing all the little canaries, finches and love birds cramped into small cages. The rabbits, geese and chickens did not fare much better.