Clam Pasta by watereverysunday (Forgive bad spelling)

One of my favorite pastas of all time. When you crave a seafood pasta without going full mix of seafood, this recipe is pretty much a fool proof to any cooking novice yet always comes out perfectly yummy. 

My recipe follows and is modified of Linguine version of Mario Batali's Epicurious recipe.

I use tomato sauce in the mix but you can go without it and clean, especially if you are making with linguini. Just season the sauce with salt to your taste.

If you don't have white wine, you can use diluted vinegar or white grape juice but expect it to taste different than using wine depending on the nature of the substitute. Avoid using a substitute that is too sweet such as rice vinegar or apple juice. This will make your pasta taste rather sweet…You don't want your clams to be savory sweet but not sugary sweet.

As for the red pepper flakes, this will definitely add heat to the dish and with the rendered red pepper oil. You can also use roughly crushed or grounded red peppers but I do not recommend paprika or other smoked sorts, these will crash the overall taste with the strong flavor. 

Now let's get to it!

Pasta con le vongole (clam)

INGREDIENTS:

Recipe for two servings

• Linguine or Thick Spaghetti - 

Tips for determining the serving amount Grasp a bunch of long pasta between your thumb and index finger —this is roughly a single serving. Imagine the okay sign. 👌👌

This wikihow guide seems really great for measuring Spaghettis for serving. You would never know that these methods have ever existed.

• Clam of your choice - 2 handful of cockles, manila clams or a dozen little necks, purged and scrubbed (personally I like little necks)
• Olive Oil 
• White Wine (any kind but cheap and dry.. if classically, go with Pinot Grigio)
• 4 Cloves of Garlic -  sliced or crushed and roughly chopped
• One Cup chopped Parsley
• 2 Teaspoon (TS) Red Pepper Flakes (no paprika or spiced sorts)
• Parmesan Cheese - freshly grated
• 2 Tablespoons (TBS) of Crushed Tomato or any tomato sauce (store bought marinara sauce also works)
• Sea Salt and pepper as needed

R E C I P E

1. Boil a pot of water for pasta. Add salt to help pasta cook better and add flavor to the pasta. Cook pasta according to the package instructions until one minute before Al Dente.

        Photo by Meredith / Image Source Allrecipes

Image Source: WikiHow

2. When you add the pasta to the boiling water, start heating the pan with two rounds of olive oil at medium heat. Add crushed, sliced or chopped garlic and cook for one minute until fragrant. See the helpful wikihow guide on how to sauté garlic. Do not brown your garlic which will results in a bitter taste. Add red pepper flakes and heat until pepper oil emerges.

  Image Source: WikiHow 

3. Change to high heat and add cleaned clams* and splashes of white wine. Cook for a minute to evaporate the alcohol. Wine helps to get rid of any fishy smell from the clams.

*Most of store bought clams should come purged and cleaned. If not, you need to purge them in a salt water in a dark place then scrubbed the shells, otherwise we would end up with a sandy pasta. :(

Image Source: loyalnana.com

Image Source: onceuponachef.com

4. Add tomato sauce and chopped parsley. Parsley is also great in getting rid of any fishy or other smells. Close the lid and cook until all clams open up about 7-8 minutes. Applying pressure over the lid will create vacuum and encourage the clams to open up faster. Discard any clams that did not open.

If you are not using tomato sauce, add chopped parsley after all clams opened up and mix with the sauce in the pan and season the sauce with salt.

5. You can directly add cooked pasta to the pan and combine. Or remove clams from the pan and add pasta to coat with the sauce in the pan. Add pasta water if it feels dry. Hot pasta water help the sauce to coat better over the pasta. 

6. Serve with freshly grated cheese and pepper to taste. Add a pinch of remaining chopped parsley and red pepper flakes to garnish before serving. Serve while hot!

 Image Source: Epicurious

H E A T   I S   O N !

N O W   E N J O Y ! !