Linguine With Clam Sauce

Linguine with Clam Sauce is one of those dishes you've had a bad version of too many times. At most fine Italian-American restaurants, what you generally get is a soggy brown and grey mess, with a heap of unappetizing tinny-flavored canned clams on top of a butter drenched heap of too soft pasta. Yuck. The dish is now written off.

You order it with all the hope in the world that what you will get is a heaping plate of clams in their shells. Underneath the delectable full shells, should be a pile of hiding al dente twirly pasta that is so rich and subtle with clam juices and butter and a smidge of garlic and oil that it slides off your fork, and you are forced to ask for a spoon- which you also use to lap up the lovely yellow and green parsley speckled remnants at the bottom of the bowl- much to the disgust of your better mannered husband.


Many people never think to try it at home- they have an aversion to cooking shellfish, fearing long nights near the toilet, I suppose. But truly, there is nothing easier to cook then a good fresh clam, nor as satisfying as this classic dish. The first time I made it, I was terrified of messing up the clams (though with practice I learned that it is pretty hard to do that). Over time, what I realized is that this dish is as much a matter of timing as anything else. The rest is easy. Trust me!

Ingredients:
(Feeds 2, or 4 if you double the pasta)
1.5-2 dozen hard shelled clams (Littleneck are best, and wonderfully inexpensive on the east coast. Keep them in the fridge, with the top of the bag rolled down and opened very wide)
1/2 pound long pasta (About half the box- flat and wide can be great, but spaghetti can work too! Capellini tends to get a little mushy here)
1 fat handful of chopped Italian parsley
1-2 garlic cloves, sliced very thin
2 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 good glug dry white wine (old left overs are ok! I guess this is about 1/2-3/4 cup- don't worry if it is too much- you can cook it down.)
1-2 shakes or dried hot pepper
1 chopped shallot or small onion (completely optional)

Equipment:
1 large saucepan for cooking the clams
1 pair tongs or big spoon
1 big pot for the pasta
1 strainer for the clams
1 old toothbrush for cleaning the clams

1. Put well salted water on to boil. I always do this first, so it's ready as soon as I need it.

2. Under cold water, scrub each clam with the toothbrush to remove dirt and grit. These days most clams are farmed, and have very little grit inside of them, so don't worry about that. Discard any with very broken or loose shells, little nicks are ok.

3. Chop parsley and slice garlic. This is a meal best cooked with everything prepared before hand.

4. Heat the sauce pan on medium-high heat (4-5 on my sad stove) Add the oil, and watch it shimmer. If using onion, soften here. Turn down the heat a tad, and cook the garlic (and or option shallot) so it is nice and gold. Don't let it burn. Add hot pepper.

5. Add a tablespoon of butter, the white wine, and the parsley. Let it sizzle for a moment. If it doesn't- your heat is too low. Turn it up a tad and get the thing to a simmer!

6. Add your clams, and cover tightly. Leave the kitchen for a few minutes and let this all cook! (About 8 minutes.) Impatiently check to see if any clams have opened. If they have popped wide, pick them out with the tongs, and tip their juice into the sauce. Put clams in bowl on the side. Continue until about half the clams are cooked.

7. Add pasta to boiling water. Cook for a minute or two less then called for on the box (6 minutes or so) Continue to pull clams out, as they open, re-covering pot after every foray. I sometimes wait until the last few clams are a tiny bit open to even start the pasta- and turn the sauce down very low.

8. When the pasta is cooked, using tongs, transfer directly into the pot of sauce, toss, and turn heat down, and let cook for a minute or two. if not all the clams are open at this point, don't sweat it. Either get rid of them, or serve the pasta, while letting that last guy open. 

9. If this looks dry, you can splash in a little more white wine, or pasta water. I sometimes thrown a dab of butter in here, or some more hot pepper and always some more parsley!

10. Replace plump cooked clams with shells on top of the pasta they were born to be eaten with! Serve with good bread, if starch is your thing. Enjoy!