Spaghetti & Clams Recipe
This is my personal spin on one of my all-time favorite authentic Italian dishes. The traditional dish in Italy is called Spaghetti alle Vongole. However in this dish I added a few ingredients such as butter and shallots to add another layer of richness to this dish. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 Shallot, minced
- 4 cloves Fresh Garlic, minced
- 1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
- 1/4 cup Fresh Parsley, chopped
- 1 cup Dry White Wine
- 2 pounds Little Neck Clams, cleaned
- 1/2 pound Dry Spaghetti or Linguini
- 1/4 cup Preserved Pasta Water
Instructions
- Before cooking, be sure to properly clean your clams and ensure they are free of all sand or silt. To begin, bring a pot of water up to boil for your pasta. Next, grab a sauté pan to begin the clam sauce. I recommend preparing the sauce while the pasta is cooking to ensure the pasta will be ready to add to the sauce once it is al dente.
- To prepare clam sauce, melt 2 tbsp of butter and stir in 2 tbsp of olive oil. Next sauté shallots until they begin to sweat, then add minced garlic. Do not allow garlic to brown. Once garlic is fragrant, add 1 cup of dry white wine and red pepper flakes. Allow mixture to come to a simmer to allow alcohol to cook off. When ready, add fresh clams to the sauté pan, cover with a lid and allow the clams to simmer in the sauce for 5-7 minutes. At this point, your pasta should be boiling as well in lightly salted water. (NOTE: You do not need to heavily salt your pasta water this time since the clams have a natural salt taste to them as well)
- The mouths of the clams should begin to open during the simmering process. If they do not open after 5-7 minutes, there's a possibility they were dead before you started cooking. If so, do not eat these, simply discard.
- Remove clams from sauce and add al dente pasta to the sauté pan. If you need to stretch your sauce a bit, add a few tablespoons of pasta water as well. Toss pasta in clam sauce. Once pasta is fully covered in sauce, re-add clams to the pan as well and toss a few times more. You may even decide to shuck a few of your cooked clams for ease of eating just before serving. Top off your dish with freshly chopped parsley, serve immediately and enjoy!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!