Now that the wonderful new Bon Appetit has shown me the light in terms of cooking pasta (click here for this new approach to pasta and sauce…it’s life-changing) I am now going back to my old faves to try it out on them. And one of my old fave is absolutely pasta with fresh clam sauce. Briny, garlicky, slightly peppery sauce, with fresh clams. I used littlenecks, but you can use manila clams as well. You can apparently also use cockles. (I wouldn’t know a cockle if I bumped into one on Fifth Avenue, but if you do, then just know you can use ‘em in this recipe.)
So, the basic concept is the same. Cook your pasta…but not all the way. Drain it when it still has about 2 minutes to go (and save some of the pasta water for later in the recipe). Meantime, cook up your sauce…in this case you saute up some sliced garlic in olive oil, add some white wine and then steam your clams in this fabulous mixture until they open up. Once they do, take out the clams with tongs and put them in a bowl.
Now crank up the heat under that sauce and add a little pasta water…and add your almost cooked pasta. It’s going to finish cooking in this sauce, and while it’s doing that it will absorb some of the sauce as it goes. Oh yes.
In the meantime, you can be heating your serving dish and/or your plates in a 200 degree oven. I love doing this with pasta – the heat of the plate will keep your dinner nice and warm all through the meal. In this case, I chose this particular serving bowl.
This bowl keeps me on the straight and narrow at the end of a long day, when I sometimes find myself standing in the kitchen thinking, now what was I doing again?
Oh yes. Pasta. Once the pasta is cooked, pour the entire thing into your warm serving bowl. Add the cooked clams with any juices and toss it just a little to mix it all up. Sprinkle some fresh chopped parsley on top, and drizzle just a teeny bit of olive oil over the whole thing.
I’m never going back, pasta-wise.
Spaghetti with Fresh Clams recipe (also known as Spaghetti Alle Vongole) with hugs and kisses to Bon Appetit
Ingredients Directions
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Drool. I now have a terrible urge for spaghetti and clams.
It would be super awesome if all my dishes had instructions like that. If they could just tell me what I'm doing in life, for instance…point me in the right direction…or something.
Looks like one stellar pasta dish!
Looks delicious! Imgonna tell my bf to make it for me
wowwwwwww che meraviglia!!!complimenti!baci!
Mouth watering! The photo looks so natural that makes it look like it's real in front of me. That makes me crave..:)
What a yummy day I had when i saw this delicious dishes posted. I will definitely try to make one.
I visit every now and again. This for some reason, was exceptionally funny to me today, "This bowl keeps me on the straight and narrow at the end of a long day, when I sometimes find myself standing in the kitchen thinking, now what was I doing again?"
Thank you for your wit.
Thanks…glad I could make you smile.