Linguine With Clams
Feb 18th, 2010 | By Peter Minakis | Category: Featured, Greek Wine, Herbs, Lemon, Lent, Main, Olive Oil, Pasta, Recipes, Seafood
This is one of my favourite pastas dishes and it’s also one of the simplest to prepare. The dish is also versatile as one can substitute ingredients you like or replace with seasonal or local ingredients.
Don’t have fresh clams? Why not try this with mussels? Don’t have access to fresh clams? You could certainly use canned clams (but you won’t get that same fresh seafood taste). The main reason why this dish is so tasty is because of the clams’ nature juices that spill out as they steam open and blend with your wine and other seasonings. Nature’s own sauce.
I do enjoy and make seafood dishes often and although this a summer favourite, this dish also works very well for the purposes of Lent (where shellfish are permitted in the diet). I like to keep this dish simple: finely chopped red onions, lots of garlic, good olive oil, Boukovo (chilli flakes), some fresh thyme, lemon zest and juice and chopped fresh parsley to balance the garlic.
If if weren’t Lent, I would add a little bit of chopped Chorizo. Isn’t everything better with a little Chorizo? Alas, it’s Lent and and I must resist but you can always add a pinch of smoked paprika (the star spice in Chorizo sausages). Other wonderful herbs here would be fresh oregano, marjoram or tarragon.
The most important part of this dish is to use fresh clams. I’m lucky in that the clams I get from my fishmonger have very little grit in them. Buy your clams from a store that has a brisk clientele with a high turnover of seafood. It’s always a pleasure to be able to pick fresh clams or mussels out of a tank.
I buy clams and cook them the same day. You can safely eat them if you store them in the fridge until the next day, when you are cooking them. I wouldn’t stall longer than a day. Rinse your clams under cold water and place in a stainer with a bowl underneath and place in your fridge until you’re ready to cook them.
Let’s make this pasta dish and I’ll share with you my other trick for removing any sand from within the clams.
Linguine With Clams
(serves 4)
1 kg. of fresh clams
1 500gr. package of dry linguine
1/3 cup of olive oil
1 small red onion, finely diced
5-6 cloves of garlic, well minced
1 tsp. of Boukovo (dried chilli flakes)
1 cup dry white wine
zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
- Once you’ve arrived home with your clams, take them out of the bag and place in a colander and rinse under cold water. Discard any cracked clams and if any are open, tap them few times if they still do not close, discard them as well, Place a dish under the colander and place your clams in the fridge for up to one day or until you cook them.
- Thirty minutes before you are going to start cooking, place the clams in a bowl add enough water to just cover them. Noe add a handful of flour or corn flour (cornmeal) into the bowl. Shake the the bowl to help dissolve the flour. The clams are still alive and they will breath. As they breath they will also spit out any remaining sand that is in them, clinging to the flour and sinking to the bottom of your bowl. After 30 minutes, rinse your clams and strain.
- Place a large pot of water on your stove-top and bring to a boil. Add a good amount of salt and when the water begins boiling, add your linguine and cook to “al dente|” or for about 5-6 minutes. Strain and reserve a cup of pasta water (toss in some olive oil to prevent the pasta from sticking if the linguine is ready before your clams are).
- In a large skillet, add your olive oil over medium heat and add the diced red onions, garlic and chilli flakes and cook for about 5-6 minutes so that your onions sweat. Now add the clams and white wine and crank the heat to high. Place the lid on the skillet and cook the clams for about 6-7 minutes or until they all open.
- Strain your pasta (plus some pasta liquid) and add into the skillet with the clams, plus the lemon zest and lemon juice and fresh chopped parsley. Toss the linguine well to coat it with the sauce. Add some pasta water if sauce looks too dry. Adjust seasoning (salt, chillis, herbs, citrus) and divide and plate. Drizzle some extra-virgin olive oil on top, serve.
- Serve with a Glinavos Primus white, made 100% with the local Debina grape varietal (from Epirus). Notes off pear, peach and apple and this gold-coloured is ideal for pairing with “fruits of the sea”.
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© 2007-2010 Peter Minakis
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© 2010, Peter Minakis. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.
[...] Linguine With Clams [...]
Peter this is one of my favorite pasta dishes. I see you add thyme and red onion to yours. I will have to try that as it must add such nice flavor.
It’s about time for some linguini with fresh clam sauce at our house. I keep canned clams around for last minute dinners — but you’re right, there’s NOTHING like that fresh seafood flavor. Will have to think about adding a bit of red onion next time as well!
I absolutely love seafood pasta dishes and this clam with linguine is one of my favorites. Great I made fettucine with shrimp last night, but could go for a big plate of the clams and linguine right about now!
Hi Peter,
Love your passion for Greek Food and thier recipes.
Anyway – great web site
Hi Peter
ΠαÏ΄όλο που μόλις Îφαγα Îνα Ï„Îτοιο πιάτο θα το ήθελα Ï„ÏŽÏα!!
one of my favorites. and yes, fresh clams or mussels truly make this perfect as those shells hold a lot of flavor.
OOOOOOOO Mamma Mia !!!!!!!!!! I love, love, love linguini and clams !!
oooooh, this is my favorite pasta dish too!!!! I have never made it at home though. Gotta watch out for fresh clams and give a go at it.
Seafood rules Peter, but it won’t be long be3fore you are able to enjoy bifteki once again. Then again who needs it with pasta like this.
My husband just picked up his passport and yelled “I’ll be back in a couple of days”, so he’ll be there in about 12 hours! Hope you made extra!
I had that yesterday in an italian restaurant in Kolonaki. Great!
I grew up in New England and clams were on our table often. This dish looks simple and tasty.
Love the simplicity Peter…of course everything tastes better with a little chorizo!
Pietro, Pietro – tutto bene. I eat so much pasta, I don’t know why I don’t make this. I certainly enjoy it and your preparation looks great. Must get me some clams and do it over the weekend! But with chorizo :)
Grumpy would absolutely inhale this!
This is a friends-around-the-table-kinda meal….I can almost hear the slurping and laughing going on!!!
This is a lovely presentation…. similar to “Vongole?” Correct me if im incorrect! Stunning! Costa
απλά Ï…Ï€ÎÏοχο !!! πιστεÏω να μας το φτιάξεις να το απολαÏσουμε όταν ÎÏθεις το καλοκαίÏι, Îτσι δεν είναι ????
φιλια πολλά Î Î®Ï„ÎµÏ ÎºÎ±Î¹ καλό σαββατοκÏÏιακο.
My all.time.favorite.meal!! I will be whipping this up this weekend,
next to carbonara this is my favorite pasta dish. we have it often here because it is so easy to prepare. i love the addition of thyme and onion.
What a lovely pasta
That looks so wonderful. I can just imagine the incredible smell wafting from it
Peter, I’m with you! It’s such a fresh & easy meal to prepare & the hint of chili really warms this dish up………I could do with a bowl of it now! Cheers!
Αλλο Îνα εντυπωσιακό πιάτο σου Peter, συνήθως το φτιάχνω με μÏδια, σίγουÏα με fresh clams είναι πιο νόστιμο!
Καλό ΣαββατοκÏÏιακο!
Είναι η ε[οχή τους και ειναι Ï„Îλεια! Εμείς τα κάνουμε σοÏπα!
It’s definitely one of my favorites too. Your presentation is awesome!
LL
How funny! That’s what i made today! I used a can; the real thing looks so much better; I found out that clams (maybe only the canned ones) have 90% iron in them ( I need it) Thanks for the helpful tip!
I am not a big fan of clams myself but this dish does look very lovely.