Spaghetti with (local) clams

With the bag o' clams we bought this morning at the farmers market -thank you Rappahannock Oyster Co!- and the homemade pasta T whipped up while I was in my writing class this afternoon, I made a vat of spaghetti alle vongole (it was more like fettuccine as T rolled it thick) for dinner tonight. As always, it hit the spot. Seriously, this dish is one of my all-time favorites, and it is so unbelievably easy to pull together: olive oil, garlic, clams, peperoncino, parsley, salt and pepper. It just wreaks and rolls and ensorcells you with flavor. I always overeat -as I did tonight- because although my stomach is beseeching me to put the darn fork down, my taste buds are pleading for one more bite of pasta slicked with clam jus and garlicky parsley oil. Remarkable use and confluence of the simplest flavors! www.em-i-lis.com