Linguine with Clams

Sorry I haven't posted.  It hasn't been for a lack of cooking, just a lack of time.

Last night was a typically frantic evening of rushing my son to music lessons.  So, I needed an easy dinner.

I decided to run to a nice grocery store (Huckleberries Natural Market) while he was busy playing trombone and saw some lovely clams in their fish case.

So, I purchased 2lbs of clams, a head of garlic, a package of fresh linguine, and a bunch of organic flat-leaf Italian parsley.  At home I had a bottle of chardonnay, olive oil, red pepper sauce, and butter. 


Linguine with Clams

First, soak the clams in cool water with a big pinch of flour so they expel any sand. 

While the clams are soaking, chop up the parsley and slice the garlic as paper-thin as you can get it.  Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil and add the garlic.  You don't want to have the olive oil super hot at this point...because you don't want to color the garlic.  If you do get brown garlic (like I did!) then you can just remove it from the pan.  The olive oil will still taste garlicky. 

Also while the clams are soaking, get your linguine going.  (If you buy the fresh kind, then you could get your water boiling while the clams are soaking, and then add the pasta right after you start steaming the clams.)

When the oil is ready, add a glass of wine and the clams.  If you have red pepper flakes, they can go in now as well.  I never seem to have them on hand, but I always have some Vietnamese red pepper sauce, so I just add that. 

Crank up the heat to high and steam the clams.  They open up pretty quickly- just a couple of minutes.  When they are all open, remove them from the pan.  Add a Tbs of butter to the pan and keep the liquid boiling to reduce the sauce.  Add your cooked linguine to the pan and toss.  Then turn off the heat and add all that parsley.

Plate it up!  This is a wonderful dinner, and it was on the table in about 20 minutes.