Put the remaining oil in a wide, deep pan and, when smoking hot, add the clams.
Where to eat Dine on clams, salt cod and squid-ink rice while gazing across the dunes to the Atlantic at the ever-popular Sal on Prego beach (restaurantesal.pt).pt
At the end of the day, we would head, sandy-footed, to the nearest restaurant, knowing that at every one there would be a cabinet full of fresh seafood to choose from – bass, bream, salmon, lobster, prawns, crabs, goose barnacles, clams … We never ate the same thing twice.
Catarina's tip: Pont'a Pé (+351 282 998 104, pontape.pt) restaurant next to the river in the historic part of Aljezur, serves some of the best traditional dishes, such as clams in white wine and coriander, grilled fresh fish and roast lamb.
Once all the clams have opened, tip the pan juices into the beans, stir in and heat through.
Although conventional wisdom dictates that it's better to eat shellfish in winter, clams are a great early summer treat.
At twilight we walk out back together through the wet spring air and watch his assistant chefs turn hot stones in an open pit fire on to which they pile fresh clams, mussels, potatoes, fava beans, smoked pork, chicken and dough patties called chochoca made from baked potato, flour and pork lard.
Don't miss out on a steaming plate of spaghetti con cappelunghe, a dish of succulent razor clams, costing €12.
The sweet-savoury, slightly unfathomable flavour goes brilliantly with clams and delicate summer garlic.
But let's start from the bottom up and make mussels, clams, oysters and edible seaweeds the cornerstone from which we build our program.
And, while clams with linguine is the classic combo, I think I prefer them cooked the Spanish way, with soupy, creamy white beans, which absorb all those shellfishy juices even better than pasta.
