Linguine With Clams (Linguine con Vongole)
After posting my Linguine with Clams on Facebook and Instagram, some folks have asked for a recipe.
Here’s my best attempt at a recipe…
What you’ll need:
1lb of Linguine and 1/4 less water to cook it in than the package calls for
(The extra starchy water will help the sauce come together later)
Two 6 ounce cans of chopped (not “minced”) clams
1/2 cup of fresh parsley
6 medium to large garlic cloves, sliced as thin as possible
2 Tbsp very good Extra Virgin Olive Oil
6 ounces dry, white wine (good enough to drink with, but NOT “cooking wine”)
One medium sized lemon
5-6 Tbsp Kerrygold Butter
How to make it:
Pour the EVOO into a saute’ pan and bring up to temp on medium-low heat
Open the cans of clams and drain the juice into a container to use later
Start the water for the pasta on high, adding enough salt to the water so the water should taste slightly salty.
Saute the sliced garlic on medium-low, careful not to let it burn
Add a few pinches of chopped parsley to the oil at the end of sauteing the garlic
Pour the wine into the pan and let it reduce
Get the pasta in the boiling water
After the wine has reduced by a third, add the clam juice and bring that up to heat on medium and let that reduce a bit as well
While the pasta is simmering, reserve a cup of pasta water and set aside for a few minutes
After the clam juice has reduced a bit, add a few tablespoons of stirred pasta water so the starch can help to bring the sauce together and thicken slightly
Once the Linguine is al dente, drain it, set it aside in a bowl or original pot, but add 2-3 tablespoons of butter to it and mix it together as it melts
Slice the lemon in half and add half the juice (not the seeds!) to the clam sauce, stirring as you do
Turn off the heat and as it cools slightly, melt in 2 Tbsp Kerrygold butter slowly to incorporate
Plating:
You can finish it the true Italian way by adding the drained pasta directly into the sauce and mixing it all together and adding the rest of the chopped parsley over top, or you can finish it the Italian-Americanized way of adding individual servings of pasta into bowls and drizzling the sauce over them, adding a pinch of chopped parsley (and my favorites: Shredded Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Romano) to each bowl.
