Clams with Serrano ham, butter beans and saffron

Serves 4-6 Starters and mains

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Method

Wash and soak the clams or cockles in cold salted water. After around an hour, drain and rinse them well. In a mortar, roughly crush 1⁄4tsp of saffron with a good pinch of sea salt flakes and add 2tsp hot water.

Heat 1tbsp of the oil in a pan and fry the Serrano ham on a low heat for around a minute. Transfer to a bowl and set aside for later.

Put the wine and 75ml cold water in a large pan and bring to the boil for 5 minutes. Add the saffron water and the clams and put over a high heat for around 3 minutes, shaking the pan a few times until the shells spring open, then pour into a sieve set over a bowl to catch the juices. Discard any shells that don’t open.

When cool enough to handle, remove half the clams from the shells. Discard the shells and put all the rest aside.

Crush the remaining 1⁄4tsp of saffron with the grated garlic and mix in a little of the clam cooking liquid. Season with a little freshly ground black pepper.

Heat the oil in large pan and sauté the onion until soft but not over-brown. Add the bay leaves and the saffron-garlic mixture and cook for 1 minute.

Drain the beans over a bowl to catch the liquid and add the beans to the pan with 125ml of the bean juices (discard the rest). Carefully pour in the clam juice, leaving behind any grit that may have collected in the bottom of the bowl. Simmer gently for 5 minutes and season with freshly ground black pepper.

Add the shelled and unshelled clams and simmer for 2 minutes to heat them. Stir in the parsley and the Serrano ham. Check if any salt is needed and, if so, season to taste. Serve with extra oil glugged over and a hunk of sourdough to mop up the juices.

This recipe was taken from the May 2020 issue of Food and Travel.

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