Ameijoas na Cataplana

This dish is a specialty of the province of Alentejo. It is named after the copper cooking vessel with a hinged lid and shaped like a clamshell called a cataplana. We don’t have this special pan, but we’ve found that a covered saucepan works very well. We transfer the “cataplana” to a pretty terra-cotta cazuela and serve it with rice as a sort of Portuguese paella.