Linguine with Clams

Last week, the roommate picked up 200 clams from a wholesaler on the waterfront for a BBQ. We ended up eating a little over half of them, leaving clams as this week’s special cooking ingredient!

This time, decided to go with something more Western, Italian in fact (Been cooking a ton of Asian food lately). I’ve got this big Italian cookbook, the Silver Spoon, which is supposed to be one of the best Italian cookbooks one can find. But I’ve only cooked 3-4 different things from it, lame right? So I figured now would be a good time to try another recipe.

So I jotted down this recipe and consulted with a reliable source, the Internet, to come up with a recipe I liked. Most recipes used a little too much butter for my liking so I cut that down and also added something I saw from Mario Batali’s recipe, pancetta! Now, I’m not one of those guys that always thinks adding things like bacon and other meats to an otherwise meat-less dish always makes it better, but in all honesty, pancetta sounded absolutely delicious and I thought it’d add a new dimension to the dish’s flavor.

I ended up using Colavita linguine but in all honesty, use whatever pasta you like best (I made this another time with Stop&Shop brand linguine =P) I wish I had time to run to Dave’s to pick up some fresh pasta but alas, I was already tired from running around all day and didn’t feel like trekking out to Somerville just for linguine. Maybe they should just open another store next door!

For the white wine, I used a chardonnay from Roche Winery, one of the many keepsakes from my visit to the West Coast.

Linguine with Clams

Time : 45 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients:
- 1 pound linguine
- 1/2 medium red onion, minced
- 1/4 pound pancetta, diced
- 6 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
- 6 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 2 pounds clams, scrubbed and rinsed
- 2 cups dry white wine
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

Method
1. Bring six quarts of water to boil and add 2 tablespoons salt.
2. In a large sauté pan, sauté red onion, pancetta and garlic over medium heat until onion is very soft and pancetta is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add red pepper flakes, clams, white wine and butter and bring to a boil. Cook until all clams have opened, and then set aside.
3. Boil the linguine in the prepared stock pot. While softened but still firm, drain and toss into pan with clams and stir gently to mix. Add chopped parsley and serve.

Notes:
Adapted from the Silver Spoon and Mario Batali’s Recipe
The pancetta can be removed if you like