Preparation

1. Rinse the vongole and put them in a bowl. Add half a teaspoon of salt and pour cold water on them until they are submerged. Repeat 3 times until the water runs clear. Rinse again and drain.
2. Chop the parsley and 2 cloves of garlic very finely. Set aside in a bowl.
3. In a large deep frying pan, fry the remaining pressed garlic with the chilli and a spoonful of parsley.
4. Add the vongole, drizzle with the white wine, cover and cook for about 10 minutes while stirring occasionally, until all the vongole open up. At the end of the cooking time, remove the vongole that do not open. These are not edible.
5. Remove the vongole from the pan as soon as they are cooked. Filter the cooking liquid with a fine sieve. Pour the cooking liquid back into the pan and cook for another 5 minutes, until reduced by a third. Set aside.
6. Meanwhile, remove the shells from the vongole and keep some with their shells as decoration.
7. At the same time, bring a large amount of water to the boil in a tall saucepan. Add salt as soon as the water boils, then pour in the spaghetti. Stir quickly with a wooden spoon and cook for 6 minutes.
8. Drain the spaghetti once it is cooked "al dente" and pour it into the pan with the cooking liquid of the vongole.
9. Stir over a low heat until the spaghetti is soaked in the cooking liquid, add all the vongole and the remaining chopped garlic and parsley. Mix everything for a few seconds on a low heat, add a twist of freshly ground pepper and a drizzle of olive oil and serve immediately.